Posted by Ehsani on Saturday, September 24th, 2011

This morning, the official journal of the EU announced the seventh set of sanctions imposed on Syria. Two individuals and six companies were added to a list of people and entities facing assets freeze and travel ban. In addition to the earlier sanctions on importing or exporting energy products, an important prohibition on investment in the crude oil sector was made official. The delivery of Syrian banknotes and coins to the Central Bank of Syria is now also officially prohibited.

Today’s sanctions continue to largely target Mr. Rami Makhlouf and the entities that he controls. The other notable target this time was Syria’s official and non official media. Both the Information Minister and Addounia TV were hit with sanctions. This means that the channel will stop broadcasting on the Hotbird satellite and may also be banned from both Arab sat and Nile sat. The response of the Addounia management was made available on the company’s website. The new E.U. sanctions were to be regarded as a medal of honor for being able to keep 27 European countries and its leaders busy enough to sanction a company that has believed that what is happening in Syria is a conspiracy and that these sanctions clearly illustrate that this is not just a media war but a global war targeting the basic existential needs of the Syrian people. The company promised its viewers that it will continue to expose the conspiracy and everything that harms the Syrian people.

As for Cham Holding which was also targeted today, the company is yet to make an official response. With a start-up capital of $360 millions, Cham Holding was launched in 2007 by the collaboration of 73 top Syrian investors. The new sanctions will put further pressure on this company that was already reeling from the recent change in its Board of Directors whose earlier Chair (Mr. Nabil Kuzbari) and Vice Chair (Mr. Rami Makhlouf) were both personally sanctioned. The new Board of Directors saw its new Vice Chair (Mr. Fares Al Chihabi) also get slapped with sanctions just recently.

Set below is a more detailed list of who was added to the sanctions and the official reason why:

Tayseer Qala Awwad (Minister of Justice)

Associated with the Syrian regime, including by supporting its policies and practices of arbitrary arrest and detention.

Dr. Adnan Hassan Mahmoud (Minister of Information)

Associated with the Syrian regime, including by supporting and promoting its information policy.

Addounia TV

Has incited violence against the civilian population in Syria.

Cham Holding

Controlled by Rami Makhlouf; largest holding company in Syria, benefiting from and supporting the regime.

El-Tel Co.

Manufacturing and supplying telecommunication equipment for the Army.

Ramak Constructions Co.

Construction of military barracks, border post barracks and other buildings for Army needs.

Souruh Company

Investment in local military industrial projects, manufacturing weapons parts and related items. 100% of the company is owned by Rami Makhlouf.

Syriatel

Controlled by Rami Makhlouf; provides financial support to the regime: through its licensing contract it pays 50% of its profits to the Government.

Staying on economic issues, the country’s business community is in a state of confusion and anxiety over the recent decision to suspend the imports of cars and other items with 5 percent customs duties. Besides cars, no one is sure what the import ban will include. Many products carry customs duties of over 5% percent. What will be banned and what will be deemed a “luxury” is still open to speculation. The consensus is that a detailed list of the banned items will be released over the next few days. The business community cannot wait to find out. For now, an article by Reuters quotes businessmen reporting no selling or buying amid fears that prices of existing foreign imports will now soar.

Journalist Nir Rosen spent seven weeks travelling throughout Syria with unique access to all sides. He visited Daraa, Damascus, Homs, Hama, Latakia and Aleppo to explore the uprising and growing internal conflict. In the first article of his series he meets with leaders of the armed opposition in Homs.

He did not say where or when the vessel was stopped, but vowed to confiscate any arms shipments for Syria coming through Turkish waters or airspace. Mr Erdogan has repeatedly criticised Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over his government’s violent crackdown on street protesters.

The Arab people like us. But today, the policies of current rulers of the Arab countries are based on competing with each other and hampering each other. We should not take those who are giving us a pat on the shoulder too serious. Our politics should reflect our interests. There should be no room for emotions.

Erdogan: Assad Will Be Ousted “Sooner or Later”

WASHINGTON – Syrian President Bashar Assad will be ousted “sooner or later” by his own people as the time of dictatorial rule fades around the world, Turkish Prime Minister RecepTayyip Erdogan said. Erdogan, in an interview on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” to be aired on Sunday, maintained his stern tone towards Israel and warned relations may “never become normal again” but he had warm words for US President Barack Obama as Turkey rises as a diplomatic power in the Middle East. “You can never remain in power through cruelty. You can never stand before the will of the people,” Erdogan said in a transcript released by CNN on Saturday. “This process might be extended a little bit more but sooner or later in Syria, if people take a different decision, that decision is going to be catered to. Such as in Egypt, such as in Tunisia, such as in Libya. People want to be free.”

The home of a Syrian musician’s family was ransacked this week, an act viewed as further intimidation by security forces angry at his views about the government. Malek Jandali, a renowned composer and pianist in Syria, told CNN Saturday that he learned from close sources that two armed security officers broke into his family’s Homs residence and looted and destroyed furniture. The house was empty because his parents had fled to the United States.

(CNN) — France’s ambassador to Syria was attacked on Saturday morning in Damascus, the French Foreign Ministry said.
People threw stones and eggs at Eric Chevallier after he met with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ignace IV in the Christian quarter of Damascus’s old city.

Why don’t the Christians in both Lebanon and Syria migrate to Europe is allegedly what Sarkozy asked the Maronite religious leader on his recent visit to France. According to the article, Christians had no place in the Middle East given the clash between Christianity and Islam. The Maronite leader was shocked by what he heard which prompted the French leader to point to a document that cites how over three million Christians emigrated from Lebanon over the past 20 years and that the Middle East will face many problems in the future.

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AMMAN (Reuters) – Syria has banned imports of most foreign manufactured goods except raw materials and grains, local businessmen said on Saturday in a move to preserve foreign currency reserves under pressure from Western sanctions and ongoing political unrest.

The government decreed on Thursday that all imports that carry a tariff that exceeds five percent are banned, meaning that most foreign goods are affected, from electrical goods, to cars and luxury items, businessmen and traders in Damascus, who were contacted by Reuters said.

The decision however excludes raw materials needed for the country’s hard-hit industries, along with wheat and grain purchases by the state for local consumption.

The country has been rocked since March by pro-democracy protests aimed at overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad which have intensified and claimed hundreds of lives.

In the five year’s prior to the uprising, after the authorities lifted Syria’s Soviet-style ban on imports but imposed high tariffs. Nonetheless the moves did not dampen demand for foreign imports, especially cars that began to enter the country for the first time in decades.

Before 2000, Syrians bought private cars and many luxury items through state-run firms.

Traders said the import ban has already sent shock waves across the country’s business community and was bound to add to inflationary pressures and further damage business confidence, already hit by the impact of social unrest.

“There is no selling or buying, it’s so bad now that traders and businessmen are neither selling in cash or credit. Prices of existing foreign imports will now soar,” said one car dealer in Damascus’s Sabaa Bahrat commercial area, who preferred not to disclose his identity.

“This move will only worsen the situation and add to the uncertainty,” said another businessman in the Halabouni district in the capital, adding there was a wait-and-see mood among investors and traders.

“They are holding tight and not buying any goods and sitting and waiting but not panicking so far,” he added.

Businessmen said that the economy faces currency pressures as a result of the protests and could deplete foreign reserves that had stood at around $18 billion earlier this year.

But economists and bankers say reserves have been falling as the central bank pumps foreign currency to stop falls in the Syrian exchange rate on the black market.

The official exchange rate stands at 47.4 pounds to the dollar. But dollars are changing hands on the black market at 51 pounds to the dollar and above.

The Syrian economy has been hard hit by international sanctions aimed at pressuring Assad, including a ban on all Syrian oil imports to the European Union. Analysts in the country say that foreign investment has reduced considerably.

The unrest, has along with hurting productivity in crucial industries, dealt a big blow to the country’s once thriving tourism industry and hit imports, economists and businessmen alike said.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted this week that Syria’s economy would contract 2 percent this year, dumping the 3 percent growth forecast it issued in April due to ongoing conflict and social unrest across the region.

“6 months later and Bashar is still here. 6 months later and the fundamentalist movement has achieved nothing. They are such sad, pathetic animals, those revs…its ok Arboud, im not excluding u from behind ur screen in that remark”

You always paint the picture that those opposed to dictatorship are fundamentalists. Undoubtedly there will be those who hold very strong religious convictions, but that does not make them extremists and besides, you can find similar people in the pro-Assad camp.

Also, you criticise the protestors for having achieved very little after 6 months. But by what metric are you judging their success (how many revolutions have you witnessed in your life time?)? What should they have achieved after six months?

Finally, you call the protestors animals. Ok, fine, you’ve chosen your side. But don’t expect any sympathy in a post-Assad era. Don’t come crying back pretending that you were really with the protestors. You will be an outcast, shunned by your fellow citizens. This is not going to end well, there will be bloody retribution, too many people have died in the most awful ways for this uprising to pass without acts of revenge being committed. What you do and say now has a cost. The protestors for their part are also aware that if they fail they will suffer similar acts of violence. I’m sure you are aware of this point. Do not think that you can simply hedge your bets, that people will forget, they won’t.

A lot of people on this board complain about other posts. They say that the message is offensive and that it should be moderated. I don’t think it should be. I think this board is a microcosm of what is going on in Syria right now. The hate filled attacks on other posters is directly analogous to what is taking place in cities across the country. Syria is about to enter a bloody and protracted civil war – my advice is to make sure you pick your side well.

Even without the help of Sarkozy and his friends,the Middle East is becoming less tolerant of minorities. What Sarkozy hopes to do is to replace Muslim immigrants from north Africa with Christian ones from Syria,Lebanon,Iraq,etc to reduce the impact of the increased Muslim population in his country.western embassies will do to the Christians what the US did to the Palestinians,they will accept visa applications quickly while thousands of potential Muslim immigrants will be denied entry.the goal is to help Israel in the case of the US policy toward the Palestinians ,and help European countries in their long struggle to put a break on what many Europeans call the Islamization of Europe.
The land where Jesus and christianity came from and spreaded will be almost empty from the followers of Jesus.this is Europe’s gift to Arab Christians.

Can you elaborate on the key effects of these sanctions on the everyday life of the civilians and the army?

Would electricity, mazut and internet be rationned?
How autonomous Syria is for food, medicine and other needed items? Do you think many christian syrians will follow Sarkozy advice and leave?
What other impacts?

Also what are the alternatives Syria has to compensate for the sanctions on oil since insurance companies are refusing to insure boats carrying gazoline. Would Iran and Iraq be possible providers? Would Turkey allow crossing of trucks from Iran?

Obviously Syria will become empoverished and weaker. With a weak and exhausted army it is an easy prey for Israel. Do you think Israel may decide to withdraw from the West Bank and take some Syrian territory in exchange ‘to protect the civilians’.

NEW YORK, (SANA)-Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister Fayssal Mikdad underlined that the Syrian leadership has taken a number of measures to meet the demands of citizens, issuing several decrees and legislations, on top, the laws of political parties, elections, local administration and freedom of media.

Mikdad delivered a statement at the annual coordinative meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Organizations of Islamic Cooperation on Friday, saying that the first figure who called for reform in Syria is President Bashar al-Assad who has proposed, since assuming office in 2000, a comprehensive reform plan in the social, economic and political domains.

“The US invasion of Iraq and pressures imposed on Syria following al-Hariri assassination prevented Syria from carrying out President al-Assad’s reform plan,” Mikdad added.

“In spite of the latest measures to carry out reforms, Syria is still exposed to a terrorist campaign by extremist groups linked to foreign sides…. Syria is also exposed to a misleading media campaign that broadcast fabricated news, ignore facts and blackout martyrdom of more than 700 members of law-enforcement,” Mikdad said.

He went on to say that the current national dialogue process in Syria that covers all cities and towns proves the leadership’s will in brining together all Syria people to make Syria’s future.

Mikdad underlined Syria’s support to the Palestinian people’s demand to gain a full membership at the UN, calling on the Islamic states to confront war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israel against the Syrian people in Golan and the Arab citizens in the occupied Arab lands.

At the conclusion of their meeting, the ministers adopted a statement in which they reiterated their strong condemnation of the Israeli policies that reject to bide by the UN Security Council’s resolution No. 497 related to the occupied Syrian Golan.

They also affirmed their countries’ rejection of the Israeli practices which are based on colonial settlement, confiscation of lands, diversion of water resources and imposition of the Israeli identity on the Syrian citizens in the Golan, calling upon Israel to completely withdraw from the occupied Syrian Golan till the line of June 4th, 1967 in implementation of the Security Council’s resolutions No. /242/ and /338/.

The ministers asserted the necessity of obliging Israel to respect the Fourth Geneva Convention which is related to protecting the civilians, and to implement the convention on the Syrian detainees in the Syrian Golan and to release them immediately.

They also condemned the decisions of the American Administration on imposing unilateral sanctions on Syria, expressing rejection of the so-called “Syria’s accountability act”, and considering it as null and void and an outrageous intervention of the international law and the UN Charter and resolutions.

They voiced solidarity with Syria, appreciating its stance which calls for adopting dialogue and diplomacy in the international relations to solve the disputes, calling upon the US to reconsider its stances and to abolish the sanctions.

No this is the result of the radical Muslims persecuting and killing the Christians all over the middle east from Sudan,Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and now Syria. The Christians in the middle east have been persecuted since the spread of Islam by force,( in opposite to the BS Muslims claim that they were treated well) forcing them to convert or die! As you may or not know many have been killed because of that! given at that time there were no planes or ships to flee to Europe or the USA.
In Egypt all people who work in picking trash are Christians because the Muslim Sunni force them to do so examples of persecution and killing Christians over the thousands of year are plenty!
FYI Saudi Arabia use to have large population of Christians with having many bishops at that time which indicates large population of Christians communities. Radical Islam brings destruction to every country it presents in regardless of the west is involved or not, here is the proof: China, India, Russia, etc… obviously you can’t blame the problem with Islam in these countries on the west or the Jews ( I am not saying they are innocent either). It is clear that Radical aggressive Islam doesn’t accept the others and it belongs to the stone age where people believed in empty words written by people in their holy books as much the old testament, bible has messages which doesn’t belong to the 21st century and most of Jews and Christians don’t agree or follow it, the Quran has many teaching doesn’t belong to a human being in the 21st century unless you dumb it and stop believing god wants Muslims to follow it. Having 72 virgin waiting for a Martyer as a concept ( and others concepts in the Quran) belongs the psychiatry ward patients not to a 21st human being believers.
Islam will never catch with the modern civilizations, unless it liberates itself from such teaching, many of the radicals Muslims who lives in the west are professionally educated ( many belongs to the Muslim brotherhood movement), but they have the conflict between thousands years old teaching and the world at the current time. Alzawahiri is one but there is thousands of them out there.

The birth of Jesus Christ lost all its Christians population including Gaza strip because of the radical Muslims and Hamas. Christians live in peace only in the Israeli occupied areas, and by a recent poll, the Arabs ( both muslims mostly druze and christians) living in Israeli occupied area they prefer to stay under Israeli than under the Palestinian authority.

Now you may understand little more why the Christians in Syria and the middle east will flee their homes and leave their lands empty hands to pursue a better live elsewhere. no one wants to leave their home land but because of fear which is built on a previous experience.

NEW YORK: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday strongly criticized Western powers for using force to change regimes in other countries, a reference to Libya amid calls for a similar intervention in Syria, cautioning that societies cannot be re-engineered by outsiders.

In a direct criticism of Western military operations in Libya and likely action in Syria, the PM asserted at the United Nations General Assembly that absence of democracy and rule of law cannot be a pretext to violate sovereignty and integrity of countries.

“The observance of the rule of law is as important in international affairs as it is within countries. Societies cannot be reordered from outside through military force. People in all countries have the right to choose their own destiny and decide their own future,” the prime minister said in a speech which also drew applause for a strong call for expanding the UN Security Council.

Significantly, Singh also used the occasion to make plain his desire to continue efforts to improve ties with Bangladesh, saying the upswing in bilateral ties was beneficial to the security of both: a possible pointer to a fresh effort at persuading West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to drop her resistance to the accord for sharing of Teesta waters.

The speech also saw the PM highlighting India’s new status as an emerging power as well as its willingness to play a bigger role on the international stage. “We wish to quicken the pace of India’s transformation in partnership with the international community. A fast growing India can expand the boundaries for the global economy. A democratic, plural and secular India can contribute to tolerance and peaceful co-existence among nations,” he said.

Although consistent with India’s historical insistence to respect sovereignty and integrity of nations, the blunt remark warning about the perils of the West succumbing to the temptation to impose democracy underlined a growing disconnect between India and the US. After the close relationship fostered by Singh, the criticism is jarring.

While acknowledging that the international community has a role to play to help with the process of transition and institution building, Singh said, “The idea that prescriptions have to be imposed from outside is fraught with danger.”

He continued, “Actions taken under the authority of the United Nations must respect the unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of individual states”: a remark which echoed the feeling in India that Western powers went beyond the mandate they secured from the Security Council to use force in Libya.

The PM stressed the need to abide by the foundational principles of the UN — internationalism and multilateralism — as he said, “We will succeed if our efforts have legitimacy and are pursued not just within the framework of law but also the spirit of law.”

The PM also repeated India’s strong support to Palestine’s demand for full membership of the United Nations as a state. “India is steadfast in its support for the Palestinian people’s struggle for a sovereign, independent, viable and united state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, living within secure and recognizable borders side by side and at peace with Israel. We look forward to welcoming Palestine as an equal member of the United Nations,” he said.

Making a strong pitch for the expansion of the UN Security Council so that it can reflect the contemporary reality, the PM said, “Such an outcome will enhance the Council’s credibility and effectiveness in dealing with global issues. Early reform of the Security Council must be pursued with renewed vigour and urgently enacted.”

He also focused on the piracy in the Indian Ocean, terming it a new threat to international security, and called for a comprehensive and effective response. On terrorism, he called for an “unrelenting fight” cautioning yet again against “selective approaches”.

It’s sad to come to SC without reading Dr. Landis profound analysis, at the same time it’s a pleasure to see Mr. Ehsani’s helping in keeping SC on.
Thank you Dr. Landis for creating this oasis of freedom exchange to all of us Syrians and “the rests”.
Thank you Ehsani for keeping SC alive during these dark times of our homeland. I’m sure it will be a difficult job for you dealing with all of us, good luck Ehsani 🙂

ok, so on this particular occasion you are advocating the killing of democratically elected politicians rather than protestors as you usually do). The point still stands. Why don’t you go and do it if you’re so keen on it?

@ OFF THE WALL

5 dancing shlomos is typical of those that belong to the little clique that is currently running this country, don’t be surprised by what he says. It’s because of people like him that this country will descend into civil war. If that is what he wants then I suggest he goes pick up a weapon.

I am of the opinion that Assad has now forfeited his right to any safe exit. He should be executed along with his fellow cronies.

Mr. Anti-Semitic Name
Your hypernationalism is pathetic at best. If you have a shred of love for Syria, you would have joined those trying to get rid of the rotten regime that has sold Syria, in parts, and in bulk.

Any Syrian who glorifies an army and a regime head who orders the shooting at Syrian citizens demanding their rights, who condone, by action or inaction, the systematic mutilation of the bodies of children and young women and men murdered by their security apparatus, and who condones also by action and inaction to continuing assault on the intellect of Syria, does not deserve the Syrian citizenship. Connection to Syria is now an honorable thing. It was made honorable not by the pathetic army and their treasonous masters, nor by the shabeeha hyenas, or pontificating ignoramuses shouting empty slogans, it was made honorable by the sacrifices of the young and old who have risen after forty years of oppression and of stifling of their humanity. For years this regime gave the world an image of a cowardly country, and these heroes finally showed the world what real metal Syrians are made of. The four decades of Assad gang rule is now culminating by the regime forfeiting its connection not only to Syria, but to the human race. If that does not anger you, then you have no ground to teach us about nationalism.

You and many of those accusing us of collaborating against Syria and Syrians are part and parcel of the oppression machinery. You provide that vicious machinery with cover that they themselves have discredited over the forty years of gang rule in Syria. If you can not realize that the real potential of Syria is in the freedom of its citizens from this oppression, then you have no business teaching us about Citizenship. Go find yourself a couple of like minded Israelis and spend your hours arguing with them. We Syrians have a more urgent task that will get us closer to being able to confront any aggression. We are working on removing the rotten regime and regaining our freedom, dignity, and rights.

You go love the stones of Syria, the lofty slogans of fake nationalism, and let us worry about loving its people and their yearning to unleash their great potentials.

Let me remind you that the vast majority of killings in the 20th century occurred by Jesus-abiding Christians. 5 millions Jews vanished by Christian Germans and more than 200.000 muslim Bosnians by Christian Serbs. More people in history died for the name of Jesus than any other religion. Did you forget?

Stop spreading lies!. No Christian died in Syria because he/she is Christian, to the opposite many Christians in Syria unfortunately by staying silent are supporting the murders and torture of their fellow Syrians.

Sniper fire and mortar shells rained down on the square here where peaceful protesters have gathered for months to demand Mr. Saleh’s ouster, killing at least 17 and forcing hundreds to flee, according to doctors and witnesses.

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Israel “shows no mercy” and is “cruel” in its treatment of Palestinians in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that airs on Sunday.

The Turkish leader also questioned the number of Israelis that have suffered under missile attacks launched from Gaza where the militant Islamist movement Hamas has been in government since 2007, before claiming that “hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were killed” as a result of military action by Israel.

Relations between the two Middle Eastern states have deteriorated since May of last year when Israel intercepted a small fleet of blockade runners that was bound for Gaza. The activists on board the ships claimed that they were carrying humanitarian aid for the people of the Gaza Strip but attacked Israeli soldiers when they boarded the lead vessel. Nine Turks were killed in the skirmish that ensued.

Ankara strongly condemned the incident. Erdoğan’s deputy prime minister likened the action to “piracy” and characterized it as “a dark stain on the history of humanity.” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, the architect of Turkey’s “zero problems with neighbors” policy, compared the Israeli raid to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Turkey demanded a formal apology from Israel for the loss of life as well as reparations for the families of the deceased. When its demands weren’t met this month, it barred Israeli military aircraft from Turkish air space and vowed legal action against the Israeli soldiers that were involved in the incident.

The Israeli embargo of Gaza continues but Egypt, where veteran president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in a popular uprising last February, unilaterally lifted the blockade this May.

Erdoğan received a hero’s welcome in Cairo nearly two weeks ago where he spoke passionately on behalf of the Palestinian cause. “Our Palestinian brothers should be able to have their own state,” he told a summit of Arab leaders, urging their support for full Palestinian membership of the United Nations.

The Palestinian Authority sought recognition of statehood at the General Assembly in New York on Friday despite American and Israeli opposition to the move. Western powers insist that a Palestinian state can only come about as a result of negotiations with Israel.

Although he risks alienating traditional allies of Turkey’s with his populist rhetoric, Erdoğan will likely continue to champion the Palestinian cause and frustrate his nation’s relations with Israel in the process.

The prime minister’s moral support of the Palestinians held his administration in good stead among Arabs who took to the streets to demand democracy in Egypt and Syria this year. Its “zero problems with neighbors” policy, by contrast, accomplished little in Damascus where President Bashar al-Assad hardly recognized Turkey’s plea to end the violence against demonstrators.

The emerging new political class in Egypt and possibly Syria might remember Turkey’s willingness to do business with the old, authoritarian guard in these countries and regards Ankara’s once close ties with the Jewish state warily. This threatens to derail the very aim of more than a decade of Turkish foreign policy—to establish trade relations across the region and position Turkey as the pivotal power broker of the Middle East.

So Turkey is changing its foreign policy again, this time in favor of not just its neighboring governments but its neighboring people.

Turkey, with its novel blend of moderate Islamism and secular administration, uniquely positioned between the Muslim world and Europe, should have been on the side of those to whom it appealed most all along—the very educated, cosmopolitan youngsters who agitated against the corrupted and oppressive enlightened despotisms of their time.

Erdoğan admitted as much when he avoided answering Fareed Zakaria’s question about Turkey’s realignment plainly. “We work on adopting the science of the West,” he said. “But let’s not forget, there are really beautiful things in the East, as well. Do not leave the eastern parts of the world aside.”

Cry me a river. You Christians are no slouches in this regard and many of the lands which the West occupied, were done in the name of Christ, and even many of the the so-called non-religious Westerners are still reaping the benefits of the conquests of their ancestors. Your criminal Nusayri regime will not be built on the back on tens of thousands of Sunnis.

Now that the regime started to feel the impact of the economic sanctions, If I was in the opposition leadership, I would secretly meet with the Iranians and assure them that when Assad is toppled, the Syrian people will continue to have good strong relationship with Iran as before. Iran has no special love relationship with Bashar as Assad. I do not buy a Shiaa-Alawi alliance thing. The Iranians are smart and pragmatic enough to withdraw their support of this murderous regime and hasten its fall if they were assured continuous strong relationship with the new government of Syria. A unified smart opposition is crucial element in establishing good diplomatic relationship with the east as well as the west to help the revolution succeeds.

While I agree that the regime upper echelon and some in the lower ranks (those who participate in murders) have forfeited any claim to safe exit. I remain anti-death penalty. In fact, I am of the opinion that the Syrian revolution should continue to give examples to the entire world and adopt a ban or at least a moratorium on death penalty. The upside of this would be much needed cooperation from those captured or from those who may defect but are afraid. I know it is too lofty of a request, I’d rather see those guys in jail for the reminder of their natural lives. Which would serve as a better deterrence of tyranny. You execute someone and there are bound to be some people who will consider them martyrs despite of how low they were. It is also possible that their abuses will be forgotten in short order after execution. You keep them in jail it would be much better.

In fact, I support trying those low life tyrants, their aids, and their enablers for every single life lost during their reign and for every infraction on the liberties of people, for every law they conspired to create that oppressed the people and gave them the power to commit the atrocities, fraud, and corruption they have been punishing Syria with. Drag them to court for as long as it takes, even if it costs money, and let the world learn. Execution will probably get people over it, and we should never get over crimes like that. Their life is not enough of a compensation.

5 Working Brain Cells is the typical bombastic-sitting-in-the-West-menhebak. All for outright war, as long as someone else is doing the dying.

Have you guys noticed how poorly attended the funerals for the shabihas are? When a demonstrator dies, thousands and tens of thousands come out to their funerals. It just goes to show you that to the X-Box president, even the Alawite thugs for hire as just so much expendable cannon fodder for his mafia family.

#28 is the pearl of wisdom one gets after a life time spent in an “exclusive” party environment LOL!

The French ambassador has been to more funerals than the inept X-Box menhebak president. Not surprising he was one of the few leaders not to make his way to the UN this week. I doubt he can afford the plane ticket with all those sanctions 🙂

Wonder how he likes being an outcast, along with the leader of North Korea and Zimbabwe.

It is so annoying that those islamophobe Christians are only a minority of the Arab Christians but the way they are vocal on SC makes it sound like they are the majority. I know more Arab Christians in the US including many many Lebanese and Egyptians than I know Syrian Sunnis. They are All very tolerant like Haytham ( and yes Norman). It is a disgrace that more tolerant Christians are not appropriately represented on SC.

Plenty of looooooooooooooosers on this blog are under the impression that armed struggle and these silly economic sanctions are going to bring President Bashar Assad down. They will not have any major impact on Syria economy whatsoever. They will effects the traders for few weeks, but they can switch to local business quickly. Hafez Assad barely spent a dime on imports and he survived for decades. When women sell their ass for few hundred dollars, as the case with Western Countries, it is not hard to find willing business partner that will deliver anything you want to your door step at the right price. Experienced traders will tell you that even smuggling and contriving sanction is a competitive business, plenty of sources and offers. Iran sanction been going on for decades and all it account for, is one of the best economic balancing policy of any country. Even IMF praised it. Not only that, Iran gone underground with massive local production that made it the second most developed industrial country in the Middle East after Israel.

As to armed struggle, uhhhhh, that is a joke I will not even venture into it to deeply in details. But for shallow thoughts, where the hell the idiots going to amass 300,000+ foot soldiers, 5500 tanks and few hundred of thousands of heavy weapons. The idea that the army will split is great fiction for the wannabe revolutionaries, in reality, Syria army will swell to 2 millions on a week notice. The idiots who are pushing this are pair mercenaries who are paid to bark these worthless ideas, but they are too ignorant and childish to understand Syrian army and people. The master knows it will not go too far, even will fire back, but they will not let the idiots know that, in the hope they will just cause more pain for Assad to extract whatever they needed from him.

As to Civil war, it will never come even close to that. Because those paid mercenaries are too far in left field with Syrians masses and are too small in number to cause a civil war. They will just be hunted down like wild dogs, killed and imprisoned at the same rate they stick their head out. Rather than Assad pack 16,000 prisoners, he is already building facilities to pack 65,000 heads. That is what they estimate in the end the number of paid mercenaries is going to ends up.

The sad and rather telling part about this, is they will all be forgotten, just as fast as they 16,000 now forgotten. They will rot and dye in prison just like the MB or Lebanese captured in the 80’s and the reason for that, is that there exist not a National Syrian revolution but a Foreign Paid mercenaries who have the larger interests in the conflict and will work as long as the pay checks are coming in or they will all, 65k of them are jailed.

In fact these foreign sponsored terrorist events pretty much died down now, you only see action on syriacomment and few media outlet because the bloggers desperate for that pay check, understandably, they don’t want to be unemployed. I mean think about it, who in his right mind will hire ignorant people like that when jobs are so scarce. To be continued…..time for the beach and the breeze…..

Damn it!!! Addounia won’t boradcast any more, where will my daily dose of humor come from now??
After reading ehsani’s( great job btw) latest post im confident the regime is hitting a dead end. I just fear an iraq style scenario. Cut off from the world for a decade……

What I said and hope you read it well is that the Christians in Syria WILL be the next scapegoat as happened in Iraq and other places. I know the Christians in Syria enjoy peace for years, and that’s what they afraid to lose because of the act of the west at the current time, but they were killed and persecuted during the Ottman empire in the 19th century and throughout centuries during the years.
The fact that Bashar is a dictator as everyone claims is a western BS.
Bashar had the country under secular rules if you were not part of the regime, therefore, everyone was treated the same, fast majority of the Sunni made millions of $ during Bashar years which never happened in any previous time and that’s why many of the Sunni are in support of Bashar till the current time except the radical Muslim brotherhood. Bashar family and his Alwaite people are in control of everything but
that is absolutely true for every country in the middle east and you can’t tell me it is not the case in the current Iran because I think you are an Iranian or in Saudi Arabia or or or or rest of the middle east. example of the Libya operation is scaring everyone in Syria, which will bring only a civil war to Syria.
Bashar is married to a Sunni wife, who her family are well known Sunni from HOMS, well educated, and well respected in Homs. I spoke to people who returned from Syria and all what I hear is the Muslim brotherhood who are trying to take over the country and all operations are in well specified and well planned area of the country. The Muslim brotherhood are well known as a terrorist group to Syrians who kill civilians throughout decades of their existence and just to remind you that Alqaida is a prototype of the MB.
Syria is not a democracy but a royal republic and that how it is!
I am not part of the regime and never will be as you can imagine but to ask to topple Assad and Mubrak in opposite to the Dictator Sadam is another mistake of the west. May be it is all a CIA plan was drawn years ago to change the middle east map and being acted on at the current time.
To have Turkey as a upper hand over the middle east is a real problem for the Arabs they don’t need another 4 centuries domination by retarded Turks. it is like putting the Fox in charge of the Hens
you are well aware that Russia, China, Pakistan, and many other country all over the world are not ruled by the western democracy style. Atrocities are happening in all these countries, therefore the USA and the west should try to change the regime in every one of these countries! You know well it is a clear dirty game being played by the USA and the west to put syria back in the stone age as happened to democratic Gaza where Hamas was elected in a democratic fashion.
Probably Turkey is the one who is going to attack Assad not the NATO! time will tell if that’s what is going to happen after the meeting between Bama and the douchbag from turkey, because Turks are the ones want to take advantage of the situation of the middle east by implanting another radical regime in Damascus.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the result of the “exclusive” recruiting the regime’s lackey parties indulge in. I give you exhibit A, #36. Wishful thinking masquerading as “analysis”. This individual would like to follow the Iranian model of rampant inflation and crushing poverty despite some of the world’s largest oil reserves. This individual actually thinks that Iran’s “industrial” might is bigger than Turkey’s. Har har har 🙂

“When women sell their ass for few hundred dollars, as the case with Western Countries”

Didn’t this individual claim to be living in LA? I’ll take a wild guess here and say that Mr “Economics is for Donkeys” isn’t exactly a hit with the California bombshells.

“When women sell their ass for few hundred dollars, as the case with Western Countries”

Typical simplistic Qurdahan “analysis”. Did the insurgents who fought the Americans need to amass an army? Did your precious Hizboll-shaytan? Did the Afghans when they fought the Soviets? Etc etc etc and so on and so forth.

The rest of the post is the typical bombastic crap we have come to expect from the cookie cutter menhebaks, living in the West, and too soft to actually go back to Syria and join the rest of the paid shabiha ex-cons in trashing Malik Jandali’s house.

You know the menhebaks are desperate when their posts consist of little more than “WE WILL CRUSH YOU! Any month now! Just wait for it! Yeah, we will get around to it!”

“I spoke to people who returned from Syria and all what I hear is the Muslim brotherhood who are trying to take over the country and all operations are in well specified and well planned area of the country”

Then the people you are talking to are idiots. And I don’t have any higher opinion of your own intellect if you can simultaneously believe that the MB are running the show, and yet still swallow the menhebak’s crap that the opposition is leaderless. Which is it, you can’t have it both ways.

Show me one demonstration where MB slogans were shouted, or the picture of MB leaders was raised.

“To have Turkey as a upper hand over the middle east is a real problem for the Arabs they don’t need another 4 centuries domination by retarded Turks.”

Dear God above, are you so simplistic that you honestly believe the BS about a resurgent Othaman empire? This is 2011, empires went out of fashion when Ghandi kicked the British out.

“Syria is not a democracy but a royal republic and that how it is!”

I am frankly disgusted by your statement. Maybe you are satisfied with a murderous thug bestowing power on his inept sons, but the Syrian people have clearly told the world they want something better. “That’s how it is”. How pathetically fatalistic. I’m glad the Syrian people aren’t as ready to give up their freedoms and accept the worst form of government ever created. Not a monarchy, and not a republic. An Athadian creation.

I would love to see Assad in prison. The trouble is I just don’t think it will happen. He’s no Saddam Hussein or Gaddaffi. No, Assad is more like Ben Ali, he doesn’t have the balls to see this one through. When push comes to shove he will find a safe exit. My guess is that he will try and live out a life in hiding somewhere, but given the numbers that have died, an irate relative will probably track him down and assassinate him – hopefully.

I don’t know what people like SYRIAN NATIONALIST PARTY will do when they are leaderless. They’ll probably crawl back under their rocks.

With all due respect, almost all your statements are wrong. You said ” Bashar being a dictator is a western BS”. Not true. Bashar defines what a dictatorship is. This ain’t a western BS. This is a fact. He came to power because of his daddy with a staged 99.9 percent vote. The west including Clinton and Obama have always hailed him as a reformer upuntil the Syrians decided they can’t continue with this misery anymore. His response was to murder, torture, and humiliate his own people. It js then after all the atrocities that he comitted when the west declared him illegitimate. Remember?

The fact there is other dictators in ME does not give Bashar legitimacy. This is a very flawed logic. Are you saying killing and torture is legitimate because it is practiced somewhere else?

A civil war is actually happening in Syria. 2000 mostly Sunnis have been killed. It is a civil war where only one side is dying and no one else is feeling their pain. Syrians tried non violent resistance for more than 6 months. It did not work. The regime knows no red line. 100 children were killed. Pregnant women were shots. Last atrocity was an 18 yo Zaynab who was kidnapped in front of her house, was mutilated and shot. It is foolish to continue non-violent at this time. The regime has proved beyond reasonable doubt that armed resistance is the only way out.

The Syrian revolution is not a MB initiative. It started when the regime tortured school children after painting graffiti in Daraa. They were bloodied and their nails were pulled out by an animal cousin of Bashar.

His rule was not secular. Yes many Sunnis benefited but he has “a point Alawi” in every institution possible. There is an ” Alawi head” implanted in every possible place. You have Sunnis in the army but they are ineffective. You have Sunnis as ministers but they are also ineffective. A Sunni general can be slapped around by a alawi security thug easily. This is anything but being secular. It is not intended to spread Alawism. It is intended to protect the family and keep Syria as their farm and Syrians as their slaves.

Hans, I know you are either a Syrian or an Arabic minority even if you do not admit it. It is just very clear.

its also sad to not reading comments from you and why-discuss and others

hope to hear from you more my friend but i wouldn’t blame you if i dont , i went to Syria and i stopped reading news including from SC , it did good to my mental attitude! that’s why i dont come here as often as before , but its always nice reading your comments .

@ Tara!
I agree with you on most statements you made! I am aware of what you said very well.
Then explain to me how Clinton and Obama calls him reformer and change their mind to Dictator few weeks later, same story with Sadam He was the beloved son in the 80’s to the USA but became dictator later, repeat the same story for Gadafi and Mubark do you see a pattern here! I never agreed that killing people is a good thing, human life should be cherished to the most.
probably you are very well right that MB is not the one started the revolution but the MB is Hijacking it and will take over, that’s what is happening in Egypt at the current time. what i am saying that i don’t want to see another one who is going to continue the royal republic pattern, handed to his kids etc…
what it is so difficult to ask for a secular democratic free Syria?. I have not seen the opposition mentioning the word secular ever, as I said many times democracy without secularism will never survive.
I am well in support for that where Syrian can live free with dignity, but i am in oppose to any theocracy may be implanted in Syria either Shia or Sunni.
BTW it doesn’t matter who or where i am! what matters that we agree to disagree and still be human being respect each other. that’s what missing in most of the Arabs countries.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov broke into floods of tears as he unveiled a purported relic of the Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him) at a ceremony, reports said on Thursday.

The government of the majority Muslim Russian Northern Caucasus region, raised the 1,400-year-old cup which believed to be belonged to the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

The cup had earlier been flown into the Chechen capital Grozny from London where it was kept by unnamed descendants of Prophet Mohammed’s (PBUH) cousin and fourth Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib.

Kadyrov triumphantly carried the boxed relic straight off the plane at the airport to the ceremony on Wednesday.

The flag-waving delegation then arrived to Grozny’s central mosque greeted by a crowd of singing and clapping people.

The Chechen leader then proceeded to take the jade-coloured bowl out of bubble wrapping, and broke down in uncontrollable tears after kissing the object, covering his reddening face and shaking violently.

The Chechen government said in a statement on its website that “the cup was used by Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him), passing to his cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib.”

Anyone will be able to drink water from it on the day of Prophet Mohammed’s (PBUH) birthday, the Chechen government said.

Kadyrov, who has ruled the region since 2007 and was reappointed in earlier this year, has overseen several grandiose projects and events in Grozny.

He has also encouraged the revival of Islam in the region, inaugurating in 2008 the “Heart of Chechnya” mosque, said to be the biggest in Europe.

I agree with Aboud that at thugs funeral very few people attend such thing, I suspect that those coffins are empty, there are no corpses inside them,this is no more than an acting funeral trying to get sympathy.

SNP said the syrian army is too large to be defeated by the revolution, and he said that 2 million soldier can be recruited quickly
you are wrong on both statements, The alawite can not recruit more than 300,000,there are many of them women children old men and some they will not join because of their social position, if sunni are recruited many will desert,and join the revolution , once there is resisting army,
As for the syrian army size,,may I remind you of the Algerian revolution who won over Large french army.

SNP is not SSNP, SNP is purely Alawite party,this party believe all syria belong to them and they disdain and look down at the rest of Syrian people,SNP is a racist sectarian party,however it is very small party count less than 20.

It does not really matter who you are or where you are. You are the one who assumed that I am Iranian or from KSA or or..

The feeling of the west toward Bahasr parallels what most Syrian felt towards him. Despite his father’s crininal history in Hama in 1982, the Syrian pe0ple never practiced guilt by association. They welcomed the young president hoping that his young age and his so called western education would make a difference. He presided over 11 years and made no reform. It was up untill the mass killing that most of us as well as the west denounced him. Where is the conspiracy in that?

Most of the Mamnhebaks on SC have times and again stressed our ultimate goal, a secular democratic government equal for all. The demonstartors on the ground times and again shouted slogans of Wahed wahed Wahed…(we are one people). They rejected sectarianism, tribalism and everything “ism”. What could have they done possibly to convive the unconvinced that this is not about religious belief, It is about freedom and dignity.

In all honesty, I am convinced now that there is nothing that we could have possibly done or said that would made the supporters stop supporting the regime and side with the people. People look but they only see and believe what they want to believe and if all the killing and humiliation inflicted upon the syrian people did not convince supporters to switch sided then NOTHING could convince them..

As far as I know all christians I know are against the regime. They are fed up. First of being a minority, but this is something cannot be changed and they will stand. Second of living under dictatorship. The fact of being a minority will not change but in case of achieving more personal rights and respect for freedom and regin of law, even an islamic country like Jordan, shows that it is possible for christians to live in a modern and protodemocratic islamic country with normality. So the thing that CAN be changed is DICTATORSHIP and the total lack of a law and justice principles.

And please do not be so silly to fall in the trap of trying to describe christians as pro regime since it is truly false. Christians have always played a role in modernization and dignificaton of the state.

sanctions imposed by the west will bite poor syrians more than the fat cats in Syria. Rich and connected people will always find ways to detour sanctions routes. the keys to the survival of the regime are in the hands of syrian people and countries like China,Russia,India,Brazil and Iraq since a foreign military campaign is unlikely. One guy mentioned Algeria but forgot to say that the Algerian regime is still largely intact. supporters of a violent end to this revolution are up for a major disppointment, neither the regime,nor the opposition can come victorious using guns,they can only increase the death toll and weaken their own country.

There is no chance for Syria to surrender, I wonder how the Arab friends of the US are going to act after the US uses a veto to block the establishment of a Palestinian state, a state that the West and the US claim to want,

Ow, i can guess, they are cowards,They are going to take it and keep smiling,

In coordination with active Syrian American physicians, we started a medical mission to the five Syrian refugees’ camps in Turkey, where approximately 8000 refugees are staying, mostly women, elderly and children (60% children). Two groups of volunteer physicians had already visited the camps, the first one from Sept.1st till Sept.7 and the second one from Sept.8 till Sept.13. The groups included three internists, two pediatricians and one psychiatrist.

The physicians stayed in a hotel at Antakya, a city 25-50 km away from the camps, where transportation to the camps is safe and cell phone and 3G services are available. They worked 6-8 hours daily in camps tents, camps masjids and office rooms. A total of 410 adult patients, 320 children and 150 psychiatric cases were seen. The Turkish government is also providing health workers with translators. Free medications are given and referrals to hospitals for advanced cases, imaging studies and blood work are done when needed.

We plan to continue the mission. Twenty five volunteers will be scheduled to go over the coming few weeks. Most needed specialties are internal medicine, family practice, pediatrics, OB/GYN, psychiatry, dentistry, gastroenterology and rheumatology.

Individual experiences and stories can be found on our facebook, Friends of SAMS.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is an international body composed of 57 sovereign nations. It is the world’s second-largest organization of sovereign nations (the United Nations being largest). The Annual Cooordinating Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Member States has issued the following communique dated 23 Sep 2011:http://www.oic-oci.org/english/conf/fm/acm2011/acm_fc_en.pdf
Quote: “The Meeting condemned the decisions of the United States Administration to impose unilateral economic sanctions against Syria; it expressed its rejection of the so-called “Syria Accountability Act” and considered it null and void, and constituting a flagrant violation of the principles of international law, the resolutions of the United Nations and its Charter, as well as the resolutions of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and blatantly taking the side of Israel. The Meeting expressed its solidarity with the Syrian Arab Republic and appreciated the Syrian position that calls to favor dialogue and diplomacy in the international relations in order to solve all disputes; it requested the United States of America to revisit its position with regards to this Act as soon as possible and to abolish all decisions related to this matter.”

Meanwhile the Foreign Ministers of the BRICS Group (where BRICS = “Brazil, Russia, India, China, SouthAfrica”) during their meeting in New York on the sidelines of the 66th session of the UN Assembly on 24 Sep 2011, reiterated their countries’ united stance at the UN Security Council regarding the Syria question. The BRICS’ Foreign Ministers stressed that escalating sanctions against Syria may incite further tension and complicate the situation inside the country and endanger peace and security in the region. http://www.sana.sy/eng/337/2011/09/24/371218.htm

Ehsani quotes Erdogan saying on TV on 23 or 24 Sep 2011: “Sooner or later in Syria, if people take a different decision, that decision is going to be catered to. Such as in Egypt, such as in Tunisia, such as in Libya. People want to be free.” The italics were added by me. I interpret Erdogan’s language as an acknowledgement that most of the Shaab al-Souri support the current regime.

I agree with SC commenter Amir in Tel Aviv where he has said, regarding the interpretation of the situation in Syria, “Keep Israel out of this. The Arabs are debating their internal problems. This has nothing to do with Israel.” In a like vein, I cannot agree with the OIC communique that I linked to above where it says that it considers the USA government’s Syria Accountability Act as “blatantly taking the side of Israel”. The USA foreign policy is blatantly taking the side of the Syrian dissidents in a political issue that should be internal to Syria and solely for the people of Syria to resolve. A key reason as to why the USA government supports the dissidents was mentioned by Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikdad in a statement at the annual meeting of Foreign Ministers of OIC States on 23 Sep 2011: “Syria is exposed to a misleading foreign media campaign that broadcasts fabricated news, ignores facts and has had a blackout on the martyrdom of more than 700 members of Syrian law enforcement.” (Link at SANA given by Ann, above).

Ehsani reports the European Union has imposed economic sanctions on Addounia TV because it “has incited violence against the civilian population in Syria.” I watch Addounia TV News on a regular basis. (Hana Al-Saleh is my favourite newsreader). I know it is utterly false that Addounia TV has incited violence.

During the BRICS meeting on 24 Sep 2011, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserted the necessity of instant implementation of the reforms which the Syrian leadership had announced, and implemented so that the effects can be clearly perceived by the people of Syria. http://www.sana.sy/eng/337/2011/09/24/371218.htm

What is the status of the revision to the Constitution? I haven’t heard a word about it from SANA for months! Speaking as a firm supporter of the Assad regime, I want the repeal of Article 8, and any other proposed changes to the Constitution, to be put forth by the regime now for public discussion in Syria immediately. So too do most supporters of the regime. Here’s from a video interview with one firm supporter of the regime named Yasser Hourieh (|Houria|), who is the head of the Baath Party Regional Leadership in Syria, deputy chairman of the Syrian National Dialogue Commission, and a senior administrative officer in the Syrian Department of Education. Interview dated 23 Aug 2011:

Various reforms have been implemented. Only one question remains and that is the Constitution. I hope that the President will soon make an announcement concerning Constitutional reforms. Reform is a national imperative. We all believe in reform…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwagBglLTuw

You are right, it is an incomprehensible sentence, what does it mean? maybe we should go back to the turkish original.
“Sooner or later in Syria, if people take a different decision, that decision is going to be catered to.

Which people? which decision? different from what? what does it mean ‘be catered to’ ?

Anyway the western media made it easy and transformed it into
“Time is ticking for Al Assad : Erdogan”

Note to Ehsani: Your command of English is as good and better than any native speaker’s. But let me correct you about the word “immigrate”. One cannot say “Christians immigrated from Lebanon”. One must say “Christians emigrated from Lebanon” or else “Christians migrated from Lebanon”. Immigrate means migrate in. It cannot mean migrate out.

Note to Ehsani: No matter whether we’re pro-regime or anti-regime, we all want to know reality first and foremost. It is not easy for any of us to extract reality from all the chatter and all the proselytizing. Your first responsibility here is to try to do that extraction, and deliver the truth, and the whole truth. When you post rubbish such as the claim that 40% of the population of Aleppo is illiterate, that can be an honest slip-up and forgivable as such. But you better watch out that your politcal preferences and presuppostions don’t blind you to reality. Everybody has to constantly and vigilantly watch out for that problem in themselves, if they want to separate what is real from what is evanescent wishful thinking. I largely quit reading Joshua Landis because he was doing a lousy job of understanding and delivering reality to his readers. I’m glad he’s gone.

To #149. Dale Andersen,
Memo To: Dale Anderson.
RE: “…The dark period before Islam…”
Please read carefully before jumping to conclusions. When I talked about the dark period, I was targeting Saudi Arabia, not the rest of the world. When Islam started as a religion in Saudi Arabia, the society in that area was not in the best of shapes. Mohammad was a social reformer who worked very hard to improve that society. He preached morals and ethics, encouraged education and insisted on the importance of work.
One problem with you Dale Anderson is that you have certain prejudice toward Islam that is clearly showing through your comment. Please try to open you mind, your eyes and your heart. There is a place for everyone in this world.

Can you justify for me the reason that the Christians in Iraq are being killed and forced out, and do you think that the Syrian Christians do not know what is comming to them if the regime fall through violence, I think these people that you put up here are not Christians, the revolutionaries did nothing to calm their fear, and you should know that more than anybody, didn’t you try to communicate that to Galion and Ziadi, what came out of that , nothing, because they want the support of the radicals, this revolution has no chance of winning by force, and the sooner they understand that the sooner will have reform and peace in Syria.

Those all are Christians from different parts of Syria (some are from Latakia, others from Damascus, another group from Damascus suburbs). I am communicating with them all. I know their names one by one.

“Then explain to me how Clinton and Obama calls him reformer and change their mind to Dictator few weeks later, ”

Well, at least we know now you aren’t a Syrian. EVERYONE thought he was a reformer, shackled by the hard liners around him. Then he gave that fiasco first speech, and the emperor was shown to be not so such naked, as clothed in the blood of his own countrymen.

How can anyone even think of supporting a regime that hires thugs to beat up Malik Jandali’s parents? Or beat up Ali Ferzat? Or jail Najati Tayara? What is the regime so afraid of that it won’t allow the foreign press in except under tight supervision? What kind of animal lobs a tear gas canister into the wake of Ghiath Matar?

And kindly tell me, oh menhebaks, how many of the 3000 Syrians murdered have been armed insurgents? After six months you still can’t answer that basic question.

“and do you think that the Syrian Christians do not know what is comming to them if the regime fall through violence”

I have no patience whatsoever for people who hide behind the minority complex anymore. Just what are you afraid of Norman? That your churches will be shelled, like how the regime is shelling mosques? That your clergy will be beaten up during prayers, just like how mosque shiekhs are being beaten up by your regime’s shabiha scum? That 3000 of you are slaughtered in the streets? That your villages and towns are put under siege by tanks and attacked by helicopters?

Enough with the moral cowardice. You have yet to show me one shred of evidence that a single church has been attacked. You use your minority status as an excuse to look the other way, not because you are afraid of what might come after the Baathists, but because you are afraid of the Baathists themselves.

Standing by the regime today is moral cowardice of the worst sort, and no excuse of a future phantom danger absolves you.

Is today’s theme ‘Syrian Christians’ are the bad guys that ‘we’ the ‘non christian’ Syrians should blame them for the situation Syria is in today?

Haytham,
Since you are marketing yourself as the speaker of all Syrian Christians, why didn’t we read any comments from you over Napoleon call to you and your people to emigrate, or did the cat bite your tong?

Norman,
Thank you for the info about Abughassan, I hope that we hear from him again.

I was a reader of SC when the news of the assassination of Qantari in Idleb came. Some asked for a proof that that the pro regime pharmacist was killed by anti regime armed thugs. Four criminals with names and faces gave details of his murder. Skeptics will now say that the confession is null and void. Even aljazeera now admits that there are armed groups in Syria that target po regime people and the army. A problem can not be solved until it is acknowledged,the same is true for regime backers who deny that there was any peaceful anti regime protestors.for some,anti regime armed groups are not a problem,it is a necessity,I beg to differ.

HAYTHAM – Are you implying that the majority of syrians are against Bashar Al Assad and his government??? You make me sick. 99.9% of christians are with Bashar Al Assad. You are living in a fantasy world. These islamic extremists who are obviously related to Aboud and Tara, have murdered at least 50 christian soldiers in the syrian army, and you still have the nerve to try and falsely claim that we are against the government. Should i remind you that it was the christians of Syria who shut the doors of our churches to the american and french ambassadors. WAKE UP TO YOURSELF

MANGO – ur name says it all. im sorry to inform you that the christians of syria do not associate themselves with islamic extremists who take orders from SAUDI ARABIA AND QATAR ( wahhabi regimes who have no democracy or even constitution, no freedom to practice other religions other than islam, suicide bombers )

AP, I’d love to see more details about this incident. Where was the ship coming from? If it was coming from Iran, the whole thing should have been made into a media spectacle to embarrass the Iranians. Why was this incident hidden away until Erdogan needed something for his UN speech?

There are many tangible steps that Erdogan can take, but which he doesn’t. He doesn’t seem to realize that nothing can be more damaging than to fail to back up your words to a bloody tyrant. It only emboldens that tyrant and makes him think he can ignore all the warning signs, until it is tragically too late.

#93 again, the generic fake Homsi Christian who can’t answer a simple question about Homs, and when challenged hides away under whatever rock the other menhebaks go to.

“Skeptics will now say that the confession is null and void”

Yes, they are null and void. Zainab Al Hosni, remember her? She was the young girl your shabiha ekhwat sharmouta butchered and mutilated. Her parents had to sign a paper saying that armed gangs had raped her before they would hand over her body. When it comes to credibility, your pathetic little Qurdaha junta has less than Bernie Madoff.

“Even aljazeera now admits that there are armed groups in Syria that target po regime people and the army.”

Good, it’s about time. Let’s see how much support the X-Box president retains when half of Qurdaha are clamoring to get into Turkey or book flights to Tehran. Lets see how many shabiha scum will continue to be satisfied with 15,000 liras a week when the chance of them getting killed increases.

@90 Stop being such a whiny little sensitive menhebak. Norman claims that 99.gazzilion Christians are with a murderous thug tyranny, and Haytham merely offered proof to the contrary. Stop bitching because someone effectively provided evidence contrary to the crap you people have been bought up on.

Can you please stop talking on behalf of Syrian Christians.
Even if we assumed that you’re indeed Syrian, you still represent yourself and only yourself, you certainly don’t have the right to talk on behalf of over 2 million Syrians.

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Pastor of All Saints’ Orthodox Church in Chicago Patrick Henry Reardon on Saturday stressed that the reports broadcast by the CNN and al-Jazeera channels are “untrue.”

In an interview with the Syrian TV, Pastor Reardon said that he toured many Syrian areas and he found that these areas are safe and secure.

He added that each of the CNN and al-Jazeera reports gives a different number of casualties with no evidence about the place.

“It is funny to come to Syria expecting a horror movie, but you see nothing of the events which the U.S. channels are broadcasting… I myself write articles from time to time, but I never write if I don’t have evidence,” Pastor Reardon indicated.

He concluded by saying “Syria is my first country, it gave humanity the first alphabet in the world… It is the cradle of culture and the western civilization… I’m from Ireland… All good things we have, we’ve taken it from Syria.”

I do not know if 99% of Christians are pro regime,but most of my Christian contacts are either pro regime or prefer to take a neutral stand,Haytham is wrong on this count.
I will copy those who decided not to respond to dirty comments from full time bloggers,you guys do not need to twist your tongue or throw garbage at people with opposing views to make a point. Every Syrian who died unfairly is a loss to Syria,and most of us do not condone killing Syrian civilians.I also dare to say that most Syrians are either anti regime or willing to support a moderate opposition.the Asad family is very unpopular even among minorities.

Remember: Sarkozy is close to the Carlyle group and will be out of office next May. So he has just a few months to show his real face. Reading Le Monde’s articles discrediting Michel Kilo and Aref Dalila (September 23, “L’opposition syrienne se structure dans la douleur” by C. Ayad, with no research on SC on the different meetings) gives an idea of who is agitating behind the scene: the strong Lebanese lobby in France.

Saad Hariri? The man is just a big a pussy as your X-Box president. Like your Besho, he was handed power on a silver platter. Like your Besho, he proved completely ill equipped to the task.

However, it says alot about the small mind of your X-Box president, that he couldn’t find anyone else to demonize and make into a bogey man. Ya zalami, wallak meen be hit 3aqlo bi 3aql Saad Harriri LOOOOOL!!!! Next time you want to pick some big monster in the closet, try to select someone more potent that poor little Saad.

If you want response to your comments, one that can be of beneficial dialog between intelligent people, you will need to control your hostility and maintain decorum. Otherwise, you will be treated with ignore like the low class street people in here. I will afford you this reply and see if you are a classy person to respond to it with controlled emotion and professional analysis.

First of all, since everybody playing the “English Master” in here, failing to understand that we are talking on this platform, not making essays in here, it is called blog, and in my case, I do talk to my I phone and laptop microphone using text to speech software (you can download it at ITunes store for $4.99) I rarely type or correct errors. Someone corrected me on “Brake my Heart” and “Conquer” , the software is not perfect it type by converting voice to text and it cannot tell the difference between (Brake and Break), (Concur and Conquer). But here is something about proper capitalization that even those correcting others are making:

Proper capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

If you want to impress me with your English language skill, check this link and see if you can type 50 pages flawless patent application that will be granted by most industrial countries.

I have new invention, but not sending it to any Patent Office. I managed to beat DEPRA for developing GPS system for deeply submerged submarines. Basically, it can expose submarines, pin location to within one meter and broadcast live data of the location every 60 second using a service that cost monthly $5.50. A hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllo of deal man.

Now you said:

“SNP said the syrian army is too large to be defeated by the revolution, and he said that 2 million soldier can be recruited quicklyyou are wrong on both statements,….”

No, I am right, I stand by this statement. We have been in the opposition business since 1977, we have made a lot of professional studies and we stand by those conclusions. Just what makes you think that what the MB did in the 80’s and caused the death of more than 20,000 innocent Syrians, jailing till death of thousands more, is now any different. The burden of proof is on the hired “revolutionaries”, the people of Syria do not see what failed in the past should work now. On the contrary, it has much less of chance to succeed. SHOW US THE MILITARY PLAN, how it is going to be done and who will end up in power. Silly assumption that Syrian Sunnis will not back Alawites is a bull coming from fringe and minor people who have a particular dislike to Alawites and other minority. No intelligent person will hold this statement with any value.

“if sunni are recruited many will desert,and join the revolution , once there is resisting army,”

None deserted now, the army intact. You may get few opting out but the people will heed the leader and system call for service in reserve units. You assumptions are wrong, driven by your hatred.

“……SNP is not SSNP, SNP is purely Alawite party,this party believe all syria belong to them and they disdain and look down at the rest of Syrian people,SNP is a racist sectarian party,however it is very small party count less than 20….”

We have in the 4 groups making up SNP 287 members, averaging in age now 62. Not one Alawite or Shia, 16 Christians and 4 Lebanese Kurds and the rest Sunni Moslem from Notable families. All suffered personal and financial loss from Baath rule. Assad, to this day, will not issue passports to many of us and although he created bureaucracy that could help people like us, we could not, nor able to use it.

Our assessment is that your people have zero chance of success. What I really want to know, if you have any compassion, what are you going to do in order to release 16000 Syrians now in prison? Before they rot and die off in hell, just as the MB did before where 2 of my MB cousins perished.

“this party believe all syria belong to them”

We actually have a plan to allow for local municipal code. If the people of Hama elect to enforce Sharia and hijab they can do so, but they cannot enforce such nationally. We respect others choice in life, if people of BABA OMAR would like to erect an Islamic styled wall around their town, with four minarets and the crescent Alien moon god SIN symbol on each corner of the wall, they have the municipal right to do so, if they elected such. Will be happy to install an Islamic gate as well for them, as long as the locals will pay for it all. As an act of kindness and generosity, will be happy to hold the gate keys for you after they are locked. Toss them off the wall. May Allah praise you and give you 42 nine years old virgins.

“ and they disdain and look down at the rest of Syrian people”

I gone to the beach today and my wife and kid thought I am not with them, tried to fake it. The whole time at the Beach today, thought of exactly the thought you just stated above, in even more derogatory ways. In fact the thought came to my mind, why the hell do I need this fu****ed up Syrian people.

The original plan was to turn Syria into another California, bringing in those nice people over to make a change to the country landscape and attitudes. Giving them all we can to help them set shop and own homes and property, businesses and teach the Syrians something. Just like the Bedouins did bringing Americans over.

“,SNP is a racist sectarian partythe”

We are party of rights, we respect everyone rights to live as he choose, provided he is not a traitor or pose a threat to the Nation. We respect the right of the Jews to return and their right to Jerusalem as their eternal city. Likewise, we respect Iran’s as allies and will support it in every way as it struggle against hegemony, we hoped one day we can use both nations to advance ours quickly. Israel chose playing the One Worlder’s puppet roll and Turkey chose to play the Imperialist role.

Without SNP the Middle East will go for the dogs. Hell, war, upheaval, stagnation, unemployment and rampant poverty. We gave- forgot his name- (now in coma) a deal and told him give Syria back the Golan and you do not have to remove a single Jewish house or farm from the Golan, It will return to Syria and be run by the “Golan Development Authority” a regional administration run by both Syrians and Jews residents, but Israel will need to come up with 15 billion for the development, they chose otherwise, and gone to war in GAZA and Lebanon, Fu***ed up people. The entire Middle East is made up of Fu****ed up people, Only Islamic Iran seems to have gotten its act together.

Let me remind you that the vast majority of killings in the 20th century occurred by Jesus-abiding Christians. 5 millions Jews vanished by Christian Germans and more than 200.000 muslim Bosnians by Christian Serbs. More people in history died for the name of Jesus than any other religion. Did you forget?

Stop spreading lies!. No Christian died in Syria because he/she is Christian, to the opposite many Christians in Syria unfortunately by staying silent are supporting the murders and torture of their fellow Syrians.

Dear Tara,

Did you forget to include in your list the killing of millions of Iraqis and tens of thousands of Libyans? or including them would contradict your current position and your love and adoration to Mr. Ford?

So I was reminded this evening by a Netherland member of SNP that I failed to respond to part of the derogatory attack by Majdkhaldoon. Although I did state that we are party of rights, I failed to say that we uphold those human rights with utmost regards, higher than what is now provided by various International Charters. For example, we have the “Non Interference in Destiny”, under this doctrine a person cannot be prevented from changing his religion, marrying who he choose, travelling as he wish, even to enemy states (providing he does not become a spy, or a threat to economic base). Human is sovereign being he is not a “Property of State”. He is a shareholder, an owner of the State. This doctrine is exactly the opposite of the Main Stream Religion-Alien Reptilian doctrine of considering humans as cattle and is subject to Religious Institution or State enslavement in the army or otherwise. The system that Reptilian Alien used to control the humans thru various kingship and religions from the time of Babylon and Egypt till present. Human were confused to believe that Elohims or gods are creators, they are demons (JIN-IBLIS) a multi dimensional entities that were casted out of heaven to earth and were locked up in subterranean and submerged places on earth. The Christian Bible do talk about those entities in details, even make prophecy about the time they will be released from bondage to raise hell on earth and make war in heaven using humans as slave of New World order. SNP is suspicious that many of the wars being fought now were just a cover for massive hidden expenditure either to war against subterranean dwellers entities or possible to help build infrastructure and subterranean cities for them. Numerous references into the Underworld and Abzu are mentioned by reliable older manuscripts and texts from ancient times. Go research that now.

Now that the regime started to feel the impact of the economic sanctions, If I was in the opposition leadership, I would secretly meet with the Iranians and assure them that when Assad is toppled, the Syrian people will continue to have good strong relationship with Iran as before. Iran has no special love relationship with Bashar as Assad. I do not buy a Shiaa-Alawi alliance thing. The Iranians are smart and pragmatic enough to withdraw their support of this murderous regime and hasten its fall if they were assured continuous strong relationship with the new government of Syria. A unified smart opposition is crucial element in establishing good diplomatic relationship with the east as well as the west to help the revolution succeeds.

This would be a step toward addressing a concern of some of the silent/ “silenced majority” who would not want to see Syria turning into another Egypt or Jordan. Of course such a rapprochement should include HA and the submission by the opposition that allegations of the existence of Iranian and HA snipers in Syria were pure lies.

I have *a* new invention. Or, I have new inventions. Please menhebaks, stop trying to use this forum as a place to indulge in your fantasies.

And FYI, just because you wrote up a document saying that you have a patent, doesn’t make the patent legitimate. Has any patent office granted any such “patent”? It’s like No Klue calling himself an author when he can’t get his Besho fan fiction published.

Now, as to what the SNP has a plan for and what it intends on doing etc etc etc. The Baath party has some nice sounding rules and regulations. And yet you don’t have to know how to spell “concur” to see what lofty ideals don’t automatically translate into reality. Just ask the Persians, whose only other significant export asides from oil is terrorism.

“I gone to the beach today”

I *went* to the beach. Dude, get your money back on whatever crappy speech software you are using.

“None deserted now, the army intact.”

The army *is* intact. Good to hear, so Harmoush never existed. The Free Syrian Army and the Free Officers brigade are a figment of Al Jazeera’s imaginations.

“what are you going to do in order to release 16000 Syrians now in prison?”

Only an SNP member would put the onus on getting people unfairly imprisoned out of jail, on the people themselves who got imprisoned, and not their jailers. Too much sun at the beach?

“As an act of kindness and generosity, will be happy to hold the gate keys for you after they are locked. ”

Heheh, just take a look at Hadara street. If anyone is living under a siege mentality, it’s the idiots who hitched their wagon to the Besho donkey.

“Our assessment is that your people have zero chance of success. ”

The clear signs of intellectual immaturity; making decisions based on your emotions, and not on hard reality. I’ve said it before, Besho has every advantage a tin pot dictator could ask for; veto protection, an unarmed opposition, and an army of thugs willing to kill their sisters for 15,000 liars…AND STILL HE CAN’T SUBDUE THIS REVOLUTION! Incompetence, thy name is Athad.

And your party’s average age is 62? Dude, you are a party of old men, who have achieved nothing. You are like the exiled Arab “opposition” groups we used to hear about, which consisted of nothing more than a fax machine in an empty room. What kind of future does your party expect it has when your average age is 62 🙂

Ehsani reports the European Union has imposed economic sanctions on Addounia TV because it “has incited violence against the civilian population in Syria.” I watch Addounia TV News on a regular basis. (Hana Al-Saleh is my favourite newsreader). I know it is utterly false that Addounia TV has incited violence.

I believe that Addounia TV is as credible as Al-Jazeera is, and for the records, I don’t view Al-jazeera favorably at all.

ABOUD – its good to see your still living in your own weird world. Dont you have a life you freak. Seriously dont you work or have a girlfriend or even socialise. Your a weirdo. Get off your chair and get some fresh air. Obviously the american or british government is paying your social welfare payments. Im gonna find you a nice prostitute to calm u down and get u out of ur own weird wahhabi terrorist world. Dont worry ABOUD ill make sure she is fully veiled, but wearing a g string 🙂

Another thing mr ABOUDI – why hasnt Aleppo or Damascus City or Tartus joined your terrorist revolution yet????? Are you still using the same terrorist arguement that they are scared of the shabiha?? hahahahaha. Were these people all government employees and forced to join in their love for the president of all ARAB NATIONS BASHAR AL ASSAD?? NOOOOOOOOO HABIBI. WATCH THIS VIDEO AND WEEP

Can you please stop talking on behalf of Syrian Christians.
Even if we assumed that you’re indeed Syrian, you still represent yourself and only yourself, you certainly don’t have the right to talk on behalf of over 2 million Syrians.

And you guys have the right to speak on behalf of the Syrian people when you repeatably say the Syrian people want and does not want this or that.

NK – I do speak on behalf of 99.9% of syrian christians. Can u find me a single demonstration involving christians or any of the 40% minorities of Syria or even 70% of the sunni population in Syria??? Why have 100% of the christian population in HAMA,HOMS, DARAA, IDLEB, DEIR ZOUR, fear for their lives every friday when the terrorist go out and try protest or shoot at innocent army personnel??? Can you point to a single christian who has stood alongside the terrorists in the protests?? Have you seen the pro Assad rallied in Bab Touma – Damascus?? Have u seen the pro Assad marches in Wadi Nasara – Homs?? Why dont you get off ur geek computer and travel to syria and visit these christian areas and see for urself the flags and pro Bashar Al Assad pictures and banners that they have proudly erected. Bashar Al Assad is the sole protector of the minorities and 70% of the sunni population from the extremist islamic terrorists which are being funded by the Wahhabi Gulf countries and media

A question to the SNPers. How many demonstrations were you able to hold? How many world leaders received your members? Did you manage to get a single sanction imposed on the regime? Did you manage to convince a single country to withdraw its ambassador? Heck old men, WHAT did you do in your 30 years of existence?

#112 Well, that’s the difference between someone who is committed to his cause, and a bunch of lecherous old SNP men who have done nothing for 30 years, except to show the complete and utter bad taste to say something like “Western women sell their asses for a few hundred dollars”. Strange bunch of seculars, who are in love with the Iranian theocracy.

The Persian president is a joke. A little clown who attracts derision and contempt with every speech he makes infront of the international community. It’s not surprising he is so attached to Besho; he’s the only friend he has left in the world 🙂

So menhebaks, anyone care to take a shot the question of why attendance at the funerals for your shabiha scum is so feeble? Heck, when a freedom loving Syrian gets killed, tens of thousands come out for their funerals. What’s the matter, Rami Kharouf can’t hire any mourners?

Maybe the Persians and Hizboll-shaytan should send some goons to beef up the number of people at shabiha funerals. Or junior could finally leave his X-Box and go attend one.

Generic menhebak #114, whoever told you that your posts become more relevant with the overuse of question marks lied to you. Let me show you;

Do you think they check IDs at demonstrations?????????????????????????

How is it you don’t know that not every demonstrator in Khaldia is from Khaldia itself???????????????????????????????????????????

Why are all your Christian friends so scared for their lives, what happened to the all unshaven and unwashed shabiba and army thugs who were supposed to be bringing “security” the country?????????????????????????????????????????

ABOUD – Just another video of the FREEDOM LOVING SYRIANS IN DAMASCUS CITY showing their love for your FATHER AND GREAT LEADER DR BASHAR AL ASSAD 🙂 So much colour and joy and happiness. Why dont you watch the video and sing along Aboudi. Ah i forgot, its haroum to sing songs in your wahhabi version of islam

TEHRAN, SANA_ U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the UN opposes any foreign intervention in Syria’s internal affairs, adding that issues in Syria must be solved by the Syrian themselves.

That came during the Secretary General’s meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York on Saturday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings, according to Iranian News Agency IRNA.

President Ahmadinejad and Ki-moon reviewed the regional and international issues, the UN role in resolving crises in the world and the need for changes and reforms within the UN.

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – The General Command of the Army and Armed Forces on Friday said that Deputy Chief of Staff, General Bassam Najm el-Din Antakiali, passed away from an acute heart attack on Friday at 4.30 pm.

Body of General Antakiali will be escorted to his final resting place from Tishreen Military Hospital at 11.30 on Saturday to the Martyrs Cemetery in al-Dahdah area, Damascus.

heres what the coordination committee of midan stated on September 21:اليوم بعدما شاهدنا الاستاذ محمد العبدالله في برنامج الاتجاه المعاكس
نرجو من جميع الثوار الالتزام باهداف الثورة وهي:
اقامة دولة ديموقراطية مدنية تحترم حقوق الانسان
هذا هدفنا فلنجتمع جميعا حوله وبارك الله بالاستاذ محمد العبدالله الذي ابهر الجميع وكان نجم اليومhttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=167621283320075&set=a.111500728932131.19454.111444665604404&type=1&ref=nf
midan’s commitee is asking for a democratic and civil state that respects human rights.
AND THATS MIDAN!!! the so called” islamic sunni stronghold of damascus”!!!!!
not once did they chant islamiya or shariaa
btw this post got the most likes in all of midan’s LCC facebook’s page history so far….
furthermore i stumbled upon this “The Christian inhabitants of the notoriously poor and refractory Midan district outside the walls (mostly Orthodox) were, however, protected by their Muslim neighbours.” in the 1860 sectarian conflicts.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Lebanon_conflict
some families in midan actually received gifts from the Russian tzar and the french ruler for this heroic stand. my family got a snuff box 🙂 .

Uzair, but I’m drinking from his menhebak tears of impotent rage. It’s been a long time since my cup overflowed this much. There is nothing as delicious as knowing the power one has to cause all sorts of angst to Besho’s pets 🙂

The system that Reptilian Alien used to control the humans thru various kingship and religions from the time of Babylon and Egypt till present. Human were confused to believe that Elohims or gods are creators, they are demons (JIN-IBLIS) a multi dimensional entities that were casted out of heaven to earth and were locked up in subterranean and submerged places on earth

my visit to Syria was not safe at all, not that Syria is not safe any more but Homs and Babelsba in particular are very dangerous places to be in at the moment, i was writing some thoughts and observations from there with the intention to share with you guyes when i come back ,but i came back and i found this place becoming the Syrianrevolution comment rather than syriacomment , it felt and still feel sometimes that this page became one of the facebook pages ,specially the comments section

As you noticed apparently the main subject is The Christian Syrians today so i will share with you my observation about Christians i met there if you were interested .

1- wadi al nasara (the Christians valley ) is packed with lucky Christians who have houses there or they can afford to rent a house, there are many Muslims living in many towns that they are not a typical destination for Muslims ,towns like Marmarita al nasra al hewash …

3- in my first 4 days 3 Christians get killed in front of their houses , all of theme received threats before, they were accused of being ‘ government informants’ and they must ‘leave the neighbourhood’ now people treating threats from revolutionists very seriously

names are : george Nakhla , Eli al truk (his brother was killed one month before the same way ) and gayath semman

4- no one is really targeting Christians just for being Christians, i noticed that the revolutionaries trying to assure Christians that they are safe with them however this is not working specially when you speak to some one who is telling you ‘ you Christians we have no problem with you , our problem is with the Alawits!!) i heard that personally from some one who i used to consider as a moderate Suni .

5- Many of the Christians who stayed in Babelsba are accused of being government informants, the ones who refused to move out are in real danger in my opinion and they must treat these threats more seriously

5- Only 2 Christians i know they do support the revolution, however both of them did admit to me that they didn’t attend a single demonstration, reason is they both agree that the demonstrators are armed .

A question to NK, who I do respect,
You asked Jhon Khori not to speak on behalf of all Christians , may i ask you why you don’t ask Haytham Khoury to do the same?

“wadi al nasara (the Christians valley ) is packed with lucky Christians who have houses there or they can afford to rent a house”

Which just tells me you never stepped foot in Wadi Nassarah. For a time it wasn’t filled with Christians, but Sunnis from Telkelakh and Hama who fled there after the army incursions. But then, you were the same guy who insisted that the three shabiha thugs who were killed in Homs had nothing to do with the regime.

“in my first 4 days 3 Christians get killed in front of their houses”

And yet the regime’s state media apparatus made no mention of what surely would have been a propaganda coup for them.

“the ones who refused to move out are in real danger”

It’s been six month, if anyone wanted to target Christians in Homs they would have done so by now. Dude, not only is no one listening when you shout wolf, they wouldn’t pay you any attention of a wolf was actually eating up your sheep.

“reason is they both agree that the demonstrators are armed .”

Yawn. Here we go again. Kindly provide proof to the effect that demonstrations that go out are armed. Seriously, after six months you’d think that wouldn’t be so hard. Or don’t the shabihas know how to use phone cameras?

“may i ask you why you don’t ask Haytham Khoury to do the same?”

Because Haytham provides proof and evidence to back up what he says. Generic Name Homsi Christian can’t even tell me how many pages the last Al Waseel was.

Now, does SANA seriously expect us to believe that the deputy chief of staff, who apparently had no history of health problems, suddenly dropped dead one day? Do they take us for simplistic Persians?

123 about the Midan so-called declaration
Is it the same old joke as the “dawla madaniyya” which is now requested by the Muslim Brothers in Egypt (and would include a reference to the shari’a islamiyya as the sole source of law)? Since I haven’t see the “Syrian revolutionaries” come out with a single idea or motto than was not first heard in Egypt, Yemen or Tunis, I start to be worried.

Aboud – ur still I’n denial and trying to blabber on with ur extremist views. U sound like u have so much hate I’n u. Are u a suicide bomber? Typical revolution Internet geek. Did u watch the videos i posted for u previously ? I bet u sang along for abu hafez. Cmon admit it Aboud , deep down u adore bashar al Assad. Look how happy and joyful the syrians looked I’n the videos cheering for your president bashar al Assad. I promise to buy u a falafel roll and we can accept u back into the real world on earth. Cmon seriously how much drugs have u taken to keep dreaming about ur fake Islamic revolution and thinking it will achieve anything

Hehe SGID, don’t think I haven’t sometimes imagined poor little Besho finding himself in Homs, surrounded by protestors, and whining “This is blasphemy! This is madness!”

And I go “Madness? THIS…IS…HOMS!” *kicks Besho off the New Clock*

“Only 2 Christians i know they do support the revolution”

*Head meets desk*

People, imagine with me if you will, the sight of Generic Menhebak going about Homs, asking people point blank to their faces “Are you with the regime? Are you a Besho lover? Are you a mundas?” Seriously, how many honest answers does this menhebak imagine he is going to get?

Persians, please try to elevate your thinking soon. It hurts my head to come down to your level of intellect.

Mina,
If what the MB in Egypt are calling for works out according to plan, Egypt would be light years ahead of the pathetic assadistan and its highly disregarded constitution. Hey I’m all for a secular constitution but I’m confident that even the most uneducated Islamist radical can stick to his constitution. The Syrian regime doesn’t practice what it preaches, if the MB in Egypt does that they can do a better job. You can’t get rid of any radicalism by strictly shutting it out, what you can do however, is provide good education, and expose people to differences, that would gt ridmof radicalism.
I have not seen 1 church attacked( and trust me , I actually did search) but I have seen mosques that were intruded by besho’s thugs( Rifa3i, 7asan,badr).
MNA
You actually think addounia is good as al jazeera???

“Since I haven’t see the “Syrian revolutionaries” come out with a single idea or motto than was not first heard in Egypt, Yemen or Tunis,”

Mr Menhebak with an apartment overlooking a military airport (har har har), I on the other hand have heard all three regimes and your Baathist one all use the same lame excuses; foreign conspiracy, only “the man” can keep this country together, Al-Jazeera doesn’t like “the man”.

You should be more concerned with the lack of original thinking on the part of junior. Are the Qurdahans so limited in their thinking that they can only borrow from the same conspiracy theories that failed to save Bin Ali, Mubarak and Zinga Zinga?

(oh wait I’m speaking to a menhebak, must use more question marks ????????????????????????????????????????????????????)

“Note to Ehsani…… Your first responsibility here is to try to do that extraction, and deliver the truth, and the whole truth. When you post rubbish such as the claim that 40% of the population of Aleppo is illiterate, that can be an honest slip-up and forgivable as such. But you better watch out that your politcal preferences and presuppostions don’t blind you to reality……. I largely quit reading Joshua Landis because he was doing a lousy job of understanding and delivering reality to his readers. I’m glad he’s gone.”

Any other wishes that SC could cater for you? How rude! Please be advised that this remained JL site and he is in temporary hiatus to finish writing his book. He will be still writing occasionally for SC in the interim. It is amazing that more than 6 months have passes and Mnhebaks can not tolerate a slight opinion that deviate from Besho’s support. For your information, most JL critiques were actually that he supported the regime too much.

General AlAntaki died of heart attack…..can someone tell me why he is considered Martyr!

SNP
You said your party is about respecting human rights, yet you deny the palastinians living in Jerusalem their human rights and say you support Israel right for Jerusalem to be their capital.
And also you are against the revolution that ask for their human rights,rights for freedom and dignity,for justice and equality, and support Bashar the dictator.
SNP you are full of contradictions.

Dear Ihsani,
Thank you for posting: Niall Ferguson: The 6 killer apps of prosperity. It is definitely worth watching. Very informative and quite relevant to what Syria is going through today and how it can rise form the ashes.
Thanks again for taking on the monumental task of co-running SC and keeping us all connected. SC has become a community for many of us, where you meet the smart, the tolerant, the bigot and the down right stupid, but hey, there is a place for everyone in this world.

I am not implying anything. I put for you some facts that are true. I do not live in the country. For this reason, I do not know exactly the percentages. However, I wanted to show you an aspect nobody talk about on SC: That there are Christians who support the revolution.

Syrian Protests and the Media: Part I
By As’ad AbuKhalil – Sat, 2011-09-24 19:20- Angry Corner

The Syrian regime media are now desperate: Not only do they have to defend the regime: but they have to respond to an avalanche of “enemy” media that are focused on Syrian developments. Syrian regime media have always been what you expect from state media in the region: stale, unprofessional, boring, dishonest, deceptive, non-subtle, and fawning about the leader—whoever he is—and contributing to his (it is always a man) personality cult. But there is something particularly distinctive about Baathist media—and this applies to the Baathist regime of Salah Jadid as well: They excel in the art of curses and in vicious personal attacks. They have habitually resorted to describing their enemies as “Zionist spies and traitors,” although Baathist governments have been least effective in fighting or catching real Zionist spies and traitors. And when a Baathist government actually captures an Israeli spy (as the Syrian government did recently), the public often dismisses the claims because they are aware of how casual the Baathist governments have been in describing dissidents as such (it is called the art of takhwin—or declaring the other as a traitor: call it a secular version of takfir). Syrian newspapers still appear as a relic from 1960s newspapers: don’t be surprised if you read on the front page a piece of news about Bashar Assad meeting with a delegation from the Potato Association of Syria (assuming there is such an association). Or you may read about the president receiving a friendly letter from the leader of a small country that most Syrians have not heard of.

But now we live in the age of TV: there is not only the state TV, also the semi-state TV, Dunya: reportedly owned by the Makhluf family. It is obvious that Syrian regime media have no respect for the truth. That they are willing to say or claim anything: even when they may be truthful on occasion, it is hard to believe what they say given their track record of misinformation. The regime still sticks to its story: that the victims in Syria are victims of “terrorist or criminal armed gangs.” There are no civilian victims by state troops’ gun fire, according to state media. That is not part of the official narrative. As chief propagandist, Bouthaina Shaaban, said recently to Russian media: there are no innocent victims in Syria: only members of the security forces and members of the armed gangs are victims. The civilian victims don’t count at all. Dunya TV is now doing much of the counter-propaganda against Syria’s enemies. It is much more effective than the stale Syrian regime TV, from a propaganda point of view: it uses mockery and sarcasm and a mixture of imagery and contrasts to rebut Saudi and Qatari propaganda outlets.

Arab viewers are left to scramble between Saudi-Qatari media on the one hand, and the Syrian media on the other hand. It is a war of propaganda where truth is the sure victim. Syrian speakers (on the various outlets) are rather effective for their cause: unlike Lebanese speakers, they are consistently articulate and eloquent in the use of the Arab language. They all seem to speak fast and forcefully. The star of Syrian propaganda as of late is someone by the name of Muhammad Dirar Jammu: he appears on Syrian propaganda outlets and on Amal TV in Lebanon. There is no one more outlandish and more theatrical and more demagogic than this guy. He is reckless in his propaganda message, and is thriving in the Baathist limelight. He once told Syrian dissidents (on NBN TV—owned by Amal Movement–which has been fierce in defending the Syrian regime): we know where you are, and we know what you eat and what time you go to sleep and where do you drink your coffee. It was quite Orwellian. He is the one who often faults Bashar for his excessive “mercy”: Bashar’s mercy has now cost the Syrian people some 3000 civilian victims. And Jammu, like other propagandists for the regime—including the Lebanese guests—often threatens to “reveal” damning documents to prove the wild conspiracies that are posited by the regime. But they never feel rushed to release those damning documents. Yet, the one real conspiracy against the Syrian regime (the Saudi plot to unseat Bashar), never gets specific mention in Syrian regime media. Syrian propaganda outlets still refrain from criticizing Saudi Arabia: Al-Watan (reportedly owned by the Makhlufs too) newspaper may make a passing reference here and there but that is about it.

I agree with you that the Christian’s fear of uncertainty (the Christians inside the country) is the major factor preventing them from supporting the revolution clearly. However, in that played many factors:
1. The chaotic Iraqi situation.
2. The political leadership of the opposition that did not address the minorities concerns.
3. The regime propaganda (I would say this had a major factor).

However, nor Ghalioun or Ziadeh have ever sought any support from terrorist. Can you tell me the name of one terrorist group whom Ghalioun or Ziadeh asking the support? Can you say to me that any statement that Ghalioun or Ziadeh made and incite violence?

Let me show you why the regime propaganda played major role in the change of the Christian leadership opinion about what is going on in Syria. This is their first declaration on April 13
احتفالات الفصح في سورية تقتصر على الصلوات داخل الكنائس
13-04-11

“We have already made a decision to stop and prevent any vehicle carrying any type of weapon to Syria. We told them our decision as well as shared it with neighboring countries,” Anatolia quoted Erdogan as saying.

“As you recall, we had previously made an interception to a ship in Marmara. If there are planes carrying weapons, or such shipments by land, then we would stop and confiscate them as in the past.”

Dear #17. Hans,
Even though I agree with some of your assessments on this post, it was disturbing to me on many levels:
1-You said: “The Christians in the middle east have been persecuted since the spread of Islam by force,( in opposite to the BS Muslims claim that they were treated well) forcing them to convert or die! As you may or not know many have been killed because of that! given at that time there were no planes or ships to flee to Europe or the USA”. I would like to say that had the Christians been so mal-treated, there would have been zero Christians left in the Middle East. It seems to me that if Muslims were truly after the Christians as you contend, they could have completely annihilated them like the Spaniards did to the Muslims and Jews during the Inquisition and it only took them a short period of time. You are right to point out that there were and still are certain issues between Christians and Muslims, however, you forget that it usually takes two to tango. The only difference is that Muslims are a majority, thus their actions are more pronounced. Need I remind you of the atrocities committed by Christians in Lebanon?. Worst part was that it was also directed against each other. Of course, Muslims committed many atrocities too and also against each other.
2- You said: “In Egypt all people who work in picking trash are Christians because the Muslim Sunni force them to do so”. I would like to point out that during the French Mandate in Syria, the Christians did the same to the Muslims. They aligned themselves with the French and managed to get all the privileges including but not limited to, all top public employment, even when less qualified than their Muslim counterparts. Now, this also happened in reverse during the Ottoman Empire, where Christians were persecuted and denied high ranks of employment because of their religion, but then again, it goes both ways.
3- You said: “ Saudi Arabia use to have large population of Christians with having many bishops at that time which indicates large population of Christians communities. Radical Islam brings destruction to every country it presents in regardless of the west is involved or not, here is the proof: China, India, Russia, etc… obviously you can’t blame the problem with Islam in these countries on the west or the Jews ( I am not saying they are innocent either). It is clear that Radical aggressive Islam doesn’t accept the others and it belongs to the stone age”. I completely and fully agree with you. Saudi Arabia is a country that belongs in the stone ages. The loss of their Christian and Jewish communities is grave and the laws they have against Christians and Jews are shameful, but then again, they treat half of their own population (women) even worse. I feel the same way you do. Radical anything is very dangerous, but when you combine radical with backwards societies (in the case of Islam) it can be a lethal combination.
4- You said: “Islam will never catch with the modern civilizations, unless it liberates itself from such teaching”. Religion is a reflection of the people who adhere to it. The more civilized and educated, the better the religion. Christians did not change the Bible to advance, they just separated religion from state. They retired the Pope from his political role that caused mayhem and deaths and assigned him his current spiritual role. Hopefully, when Muslims start understanding and practicing the separation between mosque and state, we could get somewhere.
5- You said: “The birth of Jesus Christ lost all its Christians population including Gaza strip because of the radical Muslims and Hamas. Christians live in peace only in the Israeli occupied areas, and by a recent poll, the Arabs ( both Muslims mostly Druze and Christians) living in Israeli occupied area they prefer to stay under Israeli than under the Palestinian authority”. There are still many Christians in the West Bank. Many left along with their Muslim compatriots mainly because of the Israeli occupation and few (including liberal Muslims) because of radical Islam. As for preferring to live in Israel, well, of course. Israel is an advanced nation. The Muslim Palestinians feel the same way. Can’t you see how this has nothing to do with religion?.

All I can say Hans is that you are bending the truth a little and practicing the art of selective memory to convince yourself and all of us that you are a victim. I think that everybody in the Middle East is a victim. Let’s put things into perspective and see things for what they really are. We are all in the same boat here.

1- Clearly my command of English was not up to the task when I translated the Al-Diyar article. You are absolutely correct. Emigrated/migrated rather than immigrated is what I should have used. I will change the wording in the main article. Thank you.

2- Delivering “reality first and foremost” indeed ought to be the primary goal.

3- The 40% illiteracy claim was not made by me. I clearly stated that I was quoting the head of the education facility who made the claim in a presentation to the conference. I had even linked the article that I used to translate from. Indeed, Sheila wrote to me highlighting her concern with the accuracy of the statement. I followed up by emailing her the article again and asked whether I made a mistake in the translation. Her reply was that I did not but her concern about the accuracy remained. I consequently suggested that she summarizes her thoughts in a comment on the board which she did.

4- Dr. Landis’s record speaks for itself. Without him, none of us would be having this discussion here in the first place.

5- Your comment overall is very fair and smart. This is what makes this place what it is.

“Prophet’s (S) purported relic brought to Chechnya”.
Oh my God. I am baffled and speechless. This is exactly what the prophet Muhammad fought for years. He always insisted that he was only human and should be treated as such. He always explained that like any other human, he can make mistakes too. And after all these years and all this noble man‘s efforts, we Muslims, in defiance of everything Muhammad stood for, are making a cup that he supposedly once used, a “relic”. Please dear God, I thought Muslims have already hit bottom. Now a new low.

SGID, I honestly don’t remember what was in that post. But I’m sure the menhebaks will LOL! 🙂

So, we are still waiting to hear about the import bans. See, this is why Baathist officialdom is such an epic fail. They make a major announcement with little details, and then leave the big traders guessing for a week as to what the new decision will actually mean.

Because in the broadest sense, mobile phones and laptops would be banned. So would electrical appliances, ACs, toys (Besho would be bummed out at that).

Anyone who thinks this will somehow encourage Syria to create a home grown industry needs to take economics 101. The Syrian market is too small to justify creating factories to replace all the things Syrians will be prohibited from importing.

And forget making up the difference with exports, not when Europe and the US markets are closed off. Who are you going to export to, Iran and China?

Dear #54. SANDRO LOEWE ,
Thank you for giving a strong voice to those Christians who are against the regime, but are watching their voice lost in the middle of vociferous pro-regime Christians. We have to always remember that many Sunnis support the regime too. The Christians, like many other minorities in Syria, are under the watchful eye of the regime for any sign of dissent. They are very scared of the regime and rightly so. This is making them look bad in the eyes of the revolutionaries, but they really have very little choice. I think this has to be the mission of Syrian Christians in the Diaspora to clarify what Christian Syrians are going through and show that you can not paint all Christians with the same brush. For Syrian Christians today it is damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

Another doctor is assassinated in Syria,this time it is Dr Hasan Eid,the head of thoracic surgery dept in alumtashfa alwatani in Homs. Many of dr Eid’s surgeries were done for free.Armed thugs killed him in front of his house in Alarman neighborhood. Eid was considered pro regime by the violent arm of this revolution. There is even a doctor on this site who supports assassinations and armed resistance while he sits in his comfortable house in the US collecting dollars and giving us lectures about freedom and democracy.

What not to like about Ambassador Ford? A courageous man who sides with morality and puts himself in the harm’s way to express his support of the Syrian people. Or should I just dislike him because he is an American?

I heard on SC that Besho named a street in Homs after his mother in law. I suggest that in new Syria, we change the name of that street to Robert Ford.

The american foreign policy in the Middle East is highly unfavorable to all who are non Israelis. What America has done in Iraq and it’s incredible support of Israel and it’s illegal occupation of the Golan make Ambassador Ford’s visits very questionable.

I’m not saying that paying respect to the victims is wrong, on the contrary, it’s a noble thing to do for any ambassador… But does he only care about the innocent victims of the regime or does he care about all Syrians?

I don’t think he’s putting himself in harms way, the regime would never dare to hurt him.

Ah, but this is no longer about legitimate differences of opinions. This is not about left versus right, secular versus religious, capitalism versus socialism. This is about basic human decency, and those who would toss such values aside for the sake of narrow sectarian self interest.

Junior is a war criminal, and anyone still supporting him after this time is complicit in war crimes. Show me one country on Earth where someone who murdered thousands of his own people can still be regarded as a legitimate ruler.

The menhebaks make up so many lies to avoid the talking about the core, undisputed truth; and that is 3000 Syrians have been murdered by this sectarian mafia family’s thugs, for the sole reason that they refused to bend their knees.

Tell me, what makes you think that such people are open to being convinced of the error of their ways? If someone still supports the man who jailed Najati Tayara, murdered Zainab Al Hosni and Giath Matar, sent goons to beat up Malak Jandli’s parents and Ali Ferzat, then they are past convincing; they are bloody psychopaths, peasant sectarians who will burn the entire country than see one iota of power slip from Qurdaha.

So be it, then let Qurdaha burn until nothing is left. That is the only language these people understand

“Reactions to the formation of the SNC have varied. France and Britain have issued statements expressing support for the formation of the SNC. The U.S. has not formally reacted to its creation. No Western government has, as yet, recognized the SNC’s leadership of the Syrian uprising.
For the U.S., there are several obstacles that could impede movement toward recognition. The first is the U.S.’s unease with the prominent role of Islamists in the SNC” this is copied from the USIP.

That’s what I have been saying all along the west now finding out that Egypt is going to be ruled by the Islamist unless military continues to rule, the USA doesn’t want another radical theocracy in Syria.
I am for a secular democractic syria with all the dignity and human rights for every syrian citizen not based on religion or sectarian classification. that will never happen under a movement led by the radical group such as MB group, who is the main force in opposition if you read the names.

I am not saying that the Islamist are the one who started these revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria Libya but for sure they are the only one who are organized on the ground and taking a full advantage of the situation to take over these countries; that’s very clear the situation in Egypt, not sure if Libya will have the same or not.
That’s one of the reasons ( beside losing an old ally) why Russia, India, china, are supporting the regime in Syria… for you all remember that the USA supported and continues to support many of the Arabs dictators in the gulf countries.
For Syria that needs to be stopped by the ground people of the revolution, denouncing the radical in Syria by the revolution will bring national and international validity to a democratic secular not sectarian a new Syria. Many of the people on the ground want freedom, dignity, freedom of speech, work, law of the land to rule not bribery and tribalism with all respect of human rights but obviously will never happen if the Islamist are dominant in next Syria. Otherwise,probably will be looking at another dictator or another military ruler for years to come in Syria.
Turkey and the douchbag of turkey are involved in Syria not because of their love to Arabs, but bc the DB sees in Syria another populist Islamist movement ( GPS Farid Zakaria pressured the DB about it and he dodged the question). Turkey now is the champion of the Arabs spring, wow what a victory to the Arabs, your savior is coming from the same people who put you behind civilization for centuries to come and the one who was part of the creation of Israel; congratulation dumb Arabs. The DB is hailed as napoleon of the Arabs in Egypt and others. In my opinion Erdogan is a new parasite on the Arabs seeing a new geopolitical opportunity to parasite on and play the game of the reformer for the Arabs meanwhile till now different minorities are oppressed inside turkey.

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – The Syrian TV broadcast on Wednesday evening the confessions of terrorist Huzaifa Safa Hamadi, who confessed to forming armed terrorist groups with others with Saudi funding used to purchase weapons and Thuraya satellite phones, admitting that they attacked civilians and the army, assaulted public facilities, kidnapped three civilians and filmed false confessions by them before murdering them.

I am judging Ambassador Ford’s actions not the American foreign policy in the ME. Mr. Ford has been a profile in courageness. I admire him because his actions as an embassador are unprecedented. His actions in defying those murderes are outside the diplomatic box if you will. The Syrian regime knows no red line and is pretty dumb. Yes, they are coward but their stupidy prevails most of the time and that stupidity on its own may lead to potentially harming him. He has already received death threats. His posts on his own FB are also extraordinary. His use of the word “mnhebaks” was ah..so cool for an ambassador. It is these actions that are not parts and parcel of the diplomatic box that make him extraordinary in my views and I can only admire extra- ordinary people.

Menhebek thug, keep drinking your kool-aid. Your despicable regime will fall and regimes much stronger than yours have fallen. The neighbouring Sunnis in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey will intervene and you will rue your words.

Ila mazabalat at-tareekh

41. hans said:

The hell with you and your inferiority complex. If the shoe was on the other foot, you would be calling for war.

We mustn’t forget that some of greatest murderers of modern times were Jewish

Published: 12.21.06

Here’s a particularly forlorn historical date: Almost 90 years ago, between the 19th and 20th of December 1917, in the midst of the Bolshevik revolution and civil war, Lenin signed a decree calling for the establishment of The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, also known as Cheka.

Within a short period of time, Cheka became the largest and cruelest state security organization. Its organizational structure was changed every few years, as were its names: From Cheka to GPU, later to NKVD, and later to KGB.

We cannot know with certainty the number of deaths Cheka was responsible for in its various manifestations, but the number is surely at least 20 million, including victims of the forced collectivization, the hunger, large purges, expulsions, banishments, executions, and mass death at Gulags.

Whole population strata were eliminated: Independent farmers, ethnic minorities, members of the bourgeoisie, senior officers, intellectuals, artists, labor movement activists, “opposition members” who were defined completely randomly, and countless members of the Communist party itself.

In his new, highly praised book “The War of the World, “Historian Niall Ferguson writes that no revolution in the history of mankind devoured its children with the same unrestrained appetite as did the Soviet revolution. In his book on the Stalinist purges, Tel Aviv University’s Dr. Igal Halfin writes that Stalinist violence was unique in that it was directed internally.

Lenin, Stalin, and their successors could not have carried out their deeds without wide-scale cooperation of disciplined “terror officials,” cruel interrogators, snitches, executioners, guards, judges, perverts, and many bleeding hearts who were members of the progressive Western Left and were deceived by the Soviet regime of horror and even provided it with a kosher certificate.

All these things are well-known to some extent or another, even though the former Soviet Union’s archives have not yet been fully opened

to the public. But who knows about this? Within Russia itself, very few people have been brought to justice for their crimes in the NKVD’s and KGB’s service. The Russian public discourse today completely ignores the question of “How could it have happened to us?” As opposed to Eastern European nations, the Russians did not settle the score with their Stalinist past.

And us, the Jews? An Israeli student finishes high school without ever hearing the name “Genrikh Yagoda,” the greatest Jewish murderer of the 20th Century, the GPU’s deputy commander and the founder and commander of the NKVD. Yagoda diligently implemented Stalin’s collectivization orders and is responsible for the deaths of at least 10 million people. His Jewish deputies established and managed the Gulag system. After Stalin no longer viewed him favorably, Yagoda was demoted and executed, and was replaced as chief hangman in 1936 by Yezhov, the “bloodthirsty dwarf.”

Yezhov was not Jewish but was blessed with an active Jewish wife. In his Book “Stalin: Court of the Red Star”, Jewish historian Sebag Montefiore writes that during the darkest period of terror, when the Communist killing machine worked in full force, Stalin was surrounded by beautiful, young Jewish women.

Stalin’s close associates and loyalists included member of the Central Committee and Politburo Lazar Kaganovich. Montefiore characterizes him as the “first Stalinist” and adds that those starving to death in Ukraine, an unparalleled tragedy in the history of human kind aside from the Nazi horrors and Mao’s terror in China, did not move Kaganovich.

Many Jews sold their soul to the devil of the Communist revolution and have blood on their hands for eternity. We’ll mention just one more: Leonid Reichman, head of the NKVD’s special department and the organization’s chief interrogator, who was a particularly cruel sadist.

In 1934, according to published statistics, 38.5 percent of those holding the most senior posts in the Soviet security apparatuses were of Jewish origin. They too, of course, were gradually eliminated in the next purges. In a fascinating lecture at a Tel Aviv University convention this week, Dr. Halfin described the waves of soviet terror as a “carnival of mass murder,” “fantasy of purges”, and “essianism of evil.” Turns out that Jews too, when they become captivated by messianic ideology, can become great murderers, among the greatest known by modern history.

The Jews active in official communist terror apparatuses (In the Soviet Union and abroad) and who at times led them, did not do this, obviously, as Jews, but rather, as Stalinists, communists, and “Soviet people.” Therefore, we find it easy to ignore their origin and “play dumb”: What do we have to do with them? But let’s not forget them. My own view is different. I find it unacceptable that a person will be considered a member of the Jewish people when he does great things, but not considered part of our people when he does amazingly despicable things.

Even if we deny it, we cannot escape the Jewishness of “our hangmen,” who served the Red Terror with loyalty and dedication from its establishment. After all, others will always remind us of their origin.

I can’t agree with you more. I have given up on trying to convince the unconvinced. If all the murders, torture and humiliation could not convince them, then nothing can. They chose to stand at the wrong side of morality and therefore they can stay there. The analogy I use is that it is virtually impossible to convince someone inflicted with paranoia that he or she is delusional. It is a structural part of their composition and nothing you can do to change it. Same with people who are supporting the regime, there is absolutely nothing you can do to let them see the truth. The revolution is goin on without them and will succeed without them too.

Josh Landis, an American academic who writes an influential blog on Syria, says that Iran has helped Syria “immensely” with these efforts.

He says that when the protests began, the government’s response was to try to close the country to outside information, to control the message inside Syria, banning almost all international media. The Iranians, says Landis, counseled Syria to mount a more sophisticated international response.

“You’ve got to train up a cadre of young, hep Syrians who can get on all these social media, and that’s what they’ve tried to do,” he says.

When asked whether an attack on, say, Winfrey’s site is effective or simply a nuisance, Landis characterizes it as “all 10 thumbs.”

“But to have young voices that are sympathetic to the regime and begin countering this message demonizing Syria, if the Syrians don’t do it, if the regime doesn’t do it, they are going to lose even their own supporters,” he says, “because the message is just going to be so one-sided.”

The Electronic Army counters the protesters’ demand for change with a message of fear, Landis says.

” ‘This is a religious war, this is a sectarian war, they are going to kill the Christians.’ They try to scare a wider umbrella of people,” he says.

Abu Umar is right. If it were churches getting shelled, Christian clergymen getting beaten up during Sunday service, and Christian villages and towns being bombarded by tanks and helicopters, they would have been screaming for NATO to come in from day one, instead of tweedling their thumbs and sighing and going “oh gee, but what will come after this regime?”

And the rest of the country would have been moral cowards to let such a genocide go on.

The USA have convicted of delivery to Israel of bombs
09:13 / 9/24/2011
Barack Obama’s administration secretly delivers to Israel bombs. They are intended for destruction of underground objects, such as hiding places with the weapon of terrorists or prospective nuclear objects of Iran.

Deliveries bunker buster bombs of the USA to Israel have begun in 2009. Sources in the American official circles, the transactions which have confirmed the fact, have refused to name quantity and characteristics of bombs which have been put since then Israel.
Israel achieved arms of a similar class many years. In 2005 the administration of US president George Bush of that time has directed on consideration of the Congress the transaction about sale to Israel of the bombs intended for destruction of underground objects.
Repeated inquiries about sale plans to Israel various kinds of arms for destruction of underground strengthenings went to the Congress in 2007 and 2008, informs RIA Novosti news agency. However those years the weapon and have not given to Israel as representatives of the Pentagon have been disturbed by that Israelis, in turn, will transfer military technologies to China.
Besides, the American politicians have been deeply anxious by that if the USA will give bunker buster bombs to Israel it can be regarded as private support of attack to Iran. In turn, representatives of armed forces of Israel have asked the USA not to publish the documentation about weapon sale.

My own line of whine would’ve gave me a boost had it not come from the 5 Dancing Ballerinas.

The quote of the day today belong to you : “Please try to elevate your thinking soon. It hurts my head to come down to your level of intellect.”. Aboud, sometimes I wish you are a mnhebak so the interaction becomes interesting.

Why-Discuss

Lots of people left and came back. It is so silly that you decide to leave. It hurts my head too to not interact with high intellect. I miss you a lot. Do I have to make you a drawing this time too? Hasn’t been time for your come back?

Oh my dear god!! This is beyond belief! This is horrific. I am not going to be able to sleep. Asma Assad’ FB should be hacked and those images should be posted there. I am not sure now if I want to ever live in the same country with these animals. There is no forgiveness to such acts. It should be an eye for an eye.

The reason why the regime returns the mutilated body to the family is to etch a culture of fear in our psych and to teach us an unforgettable lesson of what the consequences would be if we dare to become activists. They have succeeded for 40 years in building a whole generation that is always afraid to speak or to trust. A culture that lots of us carried with them up until now. The demonstrators you see on the grounds are not just courageous, they are heroic to be able to fear no more.

‘The reason why the regime returns the mutilated body to the family is to etch a culture of fear in our psych and to teach us an unforgettable lesson of what the consequences would be if we dare to become activists’

How many áctivists’has been arrested and then released in the last 6 months? most of them claimed being tortured ,spat on insulted humiliated and starved ,I do believe most of what they say about torture and mistreatment BUT

how many of them were killed in the prison?”Well according to the áctivists’account not more than 20, how many of them their bodies were mutilated? Only zainab ,

the regime dose not need to kill the poor girl to get her dead brother!!, there is no proof whatsoever that the people who kidnapped her are from the government , the government dose not need to mutilated her body to plant fear in or hearts and then put the body in the hospital as unidentified .
now for your information, I didn’t see the video but I read her story , her family took the body and buried her then after the funeral is finished ,some people took the body out of the grave and filmed it ,just think of that a bit

I did not tell Haytham not to speak on behalf of all Syrian Christians because I don’t think he ever did claim to represent all Syrian Christians. If he did say that and somehow I missed that comment then I have no problem telling him aswell that he only represents himself.

I take great offense to what Norman said in #82, especially since I think he’s old enough to have lived in Syria before the Assads took over the country, I wonder if he or his parents were abused by the Sunni monsters in the pre-Assad Syria.

AlShabbeeha is an organised Regime sponsored paramilitia.
Its mission is to help other regime forces in operation Wa2dulfitnah.
The latter was pronounced by Jr as his response to the crisis that he ascribed to conspiracy.

Every Shabbeeh is paid for their services by the regime.
Every Shabbeh receives their order throught a chain of commanders from Thug One, who is responsible for every singl lost life, tortured soul, and displaced Syrian citizen.

Once Syria is freed of tyranny, a transparent special civil court shall be established to investigate all claims of atrocities committed against Syrian citizens over the last 4 decades, regardless of loyalties.

And please stop with the “there is no evidence” nonsense, those victims were arrested by security forces (not kidnapped) and then they were found dead and mutilated with clear signs or torture. Asking for evidence is just silly at this point don’t you think ? especially since the security forces keep on arresting people with no warrant or any regard to the law or due process. Actually if you compare the way security forces operate to that of a band of thugs, there isn’t much difference, both operate outside the law!

” If he did say that and somehow I missed that comment then I have no problem telling him aswell that he only represents himself.”

thats why i do respect you .

there are no sunni monsters , but there are monsters being created now in Syria ,what i saw is monsters from all sects are emerging from every where , i am talking about Homs as I didn’t see anything unusual in Damascus , there are crimes being committed everyday ,as I told to Jad ,no one is targeting Christians just for being Christians but alawits are being targeted just for being alawits , Christian girls are making sure before they go out to wear crosses or anything to show that they are Christians , one taxi driver told a relative of mine , you better wear a cross or something as some one may confuses you with an alawit girl and deliver you to the revolutionists!!
I heard about three alawits girl get killed and their bodies were dumped on the rubbish bins , I don’t know who killed them,specially that all of them were raped before they got killed but alawites are terrified and naturally every other Syrians as well including Christians

In Syria people can debate ,you set with people and express your views without being acused of being shabbih or arouur but I find it funny that people can not do that in SC , I thing the reason behind it is the propagandists who comment for the sole reason of spreading propaganda ,I don’t feel that people exchange idea and opinions in here any more , every one is trying to prove some point no matter what the cost is .

I’ve watched “The Smurfs” yesterday, what a nice movie. It was like a jump in a time-portal back to my childhood days in Syria, they days were Hafiz used to ban all TV channels but the “compulsory” official ones to indoctrinate people with long hours of Bathi nonsense bullshit!!! yet people managed to redirect their aerials towards Dar’aa to catch the signal of the Jordanian TV in which they used to play The Smurfs at 4:30 weekdays. Of course young people like Khalid Tlass or SGID would not be able to recall these days.

On the other hand, the evil Gargamel (Betho “the resemblance is amazing”), his cat Azrael (the stutter Maher) and their godfather the Lord Balthazar (ayatollah khamenei). The evil is always trying to find and destroy the Smurfs ideal dream of “le Pays maudit, Smurf village) and in other word our dream of the new Syria.

“Ah, but this is no longer about legitimate differences of opinions. This is not about left versus right, secular versus religious, capitalism versus socialism. This is about basic human decency, and those who would toss such values aside for the sake of narrow sectarian self interest.”

I’m not talking about the hardcore Menhebbacks, I’m talking about the millions of Syrians who do not love Assad, BUT prefer having him in place than living in another Iraq or Lebanon.

“Junior is a war criminal, and anyone still supporting him after this time is complicit in war crimes. Show me one country on Earth where someone who murdered thousands of his own people can still be regarded as a legitimate ruler.”

I’m not arguing against that. I don’t think most Syrians have any doubt about this anymore. The question is, will Syria be better off after Assad? As much as Saddam killed Iraqis, life was much better when he was in power. Ask the millions of Iraqi refugees who still prefer to remain in Syria than return to their homeland.”

“The menhebaks make up so many lies to avoid the talking about the core, undisputed truth; and that is 3000 Syrians have been murdered by this sectarian mafia family’s thugs, for the sole reason that they refused to bend their knees.

Tell me, what makes you think that such people are open to being convinced of the error of their ways? If someone still supports the man who jailed Najati Tayara, murdered Zainab Al Hosni and Giath Matar, sent goons to beat up Malak Jandli’s parents and Ali Ferzat, then they are past convincing; they are bloody psychopaths, peasant sectarians who will burn the entire country than see one iota of power slip from Qurdaha.”

Again, I’m talking about the MA-menhebbacks, or the Mneqrahaks, whatever you want to call them. I’m talking about the regular family man who wants the best for his wife and kids. He would like to live in a free country, but doesn’t want to live in an Iraqi or Lebanese type of country.

“So be it, then let Qurdaha burn until nothing is left. That is the only language these people understand”

This line worries me a lot. Replace the Qurdaha by Deraa and you would swear it came from the mouth of a shabiha.. Do you want to become like them?

I hear you clear and loud BUT, excuse my ignorance, since when fighting evil needs to be justified?

Soon enough those people who’re enjoying the scenery being on the fence will be forced to take a side, it’s just about time for them to start working on their assignments to understand their Pros & Cons and finally to come up with a verdict of what’s the best for Syria not for their narrow benefits of allocated governmental cars and appointed positions by the current regime.

“The question is, will Syria be better off after Assad?”

Excuse me but mmmm which Athad are you refereeing to?

See you people managed to deal with the Satan himself for 40 years and never said ouch or complained a bit, and suddenly now you’re asking for gurantee and …!!

you tell me don’t you guys want to take a worthy leap of faith for the best future for your kids? Or you just enjoy to become an old slave, filled with regret, waiting to die alone with misery!

(( take great offense to what Norman said in #82, especially since I think he’s old enough to have lived in Syria before the Assads took over the country, I wonder if he or his parents were abused by the Sunni monsters in the pre-Assad Syria.))

NK, I am sick and tired that you think that we do not want people to reach their potential no matter what their religion is, and yes i remember the days before the Baath party as actually , that is what we are talking about, it has nothing to do with Assads and the Alawat, before the Baath party the people in the rural areas were poor mistreated and many things you can look up, they were selling their children to work in homes so livelihood can be provided for them, then can the Baath party and tried to have some equality only to be attacked by the MB and that was before the Baath party in 1965 during Amin AL Hafiz time, then yes i was there in the seventies when they killed our university teachers and militery officers just because they were Christians and Alawat, you are telling me that these people should be trusted after what they did, never again, the Christians saw what happened in Iraq and what is happening in Egypt and what happened in Syria in the seventies, they saw how Muslims treat minorities in Pakistan, how can you with strait face tell them to trust this revolution that aims at religous majority rule not free election and let us see what happen , they are claiming victory before any election,

They want a take over not equal chance, and yes Loai, is right, i have family members who are living in wadi AL Nasara and Tartous after they left Homs,

So take offence as much as you want as you taking offence is better than this revolution taking over.

I have no doubt that monsters are being created, and the regime bears full responsibility for creating this mess. For months now 5-10 people die every single day and that’s in Homs alone, you can not expect them to remain rational especially when there’s total disregard to the law by non other than those expected to uphold the law. You are talking about a few sectarian incidents now, however should this situation persist I expect a full fledged civil war on the streets of Homs, and maybe in other places. It’s so sad that the Army and the Police cannot be part of the solution here since they’re the agitators and the reason we got here in the first place.

Dear Louai, have you noticed that despite all the crimes you just described and the many many more crimes the regime propaganda machine accused the armed gangs of committing we have not seen a single trial ? not even against those who appeared on State TV confessing their crimes. Did you notice that the president himself said Atef Najib was not jailed because no one filed a complaint against him ? what about the investigative committees that were formed back in March, why haven’t we heard from them after 6 months ?
This regime is not interested in justice, reform, calming the street, or protecting its citizens (minorities and majority alike); they’re interested in one thing and one thing only, how to retain their power, influence, and wealth.

Let us follow your logic. Could you name one or two thing that the revolutionaries can do or say to make the “average family man” by your description support the revolution?”

That’s what I want YOU to tell me.

The people who are screaming for change should be the ones presenting the majority with a viable alternative. Not the other way around.

With all due respect to the revolutionaries, they are doing a very poor job at convincing the majority that a better Syria will come post Assad.

The fact that the government are ruthless killers is not enough. Stability under a dictatorship is better than an all out civil war. (Please convince me of the contrary)

Also, how will Assad leave given the following facts?

– Saddam and company faced FAR worse circumstances during the 80s and 90s and the Americans STILL had to intervene militarily.
– China and Russia will likely veto any UN intervention attempts.
– The US and the UN probably couldn’t even afford to intervene.

Note: I’m not here to insult or argue with anyone. I care about Syria as much as any one of you. I just want to have an intelligent discussion/debate about the current events.

Thank you very much for sharing with us your experience traveling back home, I wish if Ehsani can either put some of your observation in the coming post or at least link it to show an observation by someone who was in Homs during the conflict.

I agree on your note that people on here are becoming so rigid that they don’t even want to listen to anything except their own words; however, what I like about SC is that it has all views written down including the extreme of both sides instead of reading one side of the story or the other.
Actually we all should encourage each other to write our differences and talk about them instead of keeping them hidden, nobody needs to convince anybody in anything, just write down your ideas, your fears, your hopes and dreams let them out and let people decide their opinion, bringing our differences into a free place where only words (sometimes ‘cursing’) and free ideas can be exchange, is the best protest to all the evil we are seeing and reading about, it’s a sign of being civilized and mature, dialogue and only dialogue is the answer for any struggle.

I have couple questions/notes regarding your comments:

-“wadi al nasara (the Christians valley )”
If there will be any serious challenge to the regime by the Syrian Christians, Wadi Al Nasara is the place to measure it from, because it has the majority of Christian Syrians there, right? From my own observation and from all the facebook pages I went through and from what Haytham’s sites he was linking non stop since yesterday, (some of them have only 50 person, and some didn’t have any comments for the last three months, I have no clue why he even bother linked those) in anyway, it seems that Syrian Christians are split between anti and pro, the same % of all other Syrian communities no surprise there and all what we are reading about Christians being either 100% pro or 100% anti are nothing but pure propaganda to be used by either side of the conflict for political gains.

-“in my first 4 days 3 Christians get killed in front of their houses”
Any lost of Syrian lives regardless of their religion is a lost to all Syrians.
What is the end of all this killing by the regime or by the militia gangs or the armed gangs or whoever gang? The outrageous thing is that some people are calling for more armed confrontation that will most likely result in more killing and bigger cycle of violence that most probably will sweep every and any thing on it’s way to hell, how much more Syrian blood do people need to see before they say enough?

“‘ you Christians we have no problem with you , our problem is with the Alawits!!’” I heard that personally from some one who I used to consider as a moderate Suni.”
That sounds more like a civil war than uprising, how sad that Homs get to this point!

-“Only 2 Christians I know they do support the revolution—-reason is they both agree that the demonstrators are armed.”
This is the core issue regarding the Syrian Christians attending demonstration; they are raised on being ‘peaceful’ (some will call them submissive and others may call them cowards) but the fact that everybody, including the ‘wanna be politician’ Haytham, ignore is that the Syrian Christians are raised to stay away from politics or any kind of religious struggles if they want to live.

-“why you don’t ask Haytham Khoury to do the same?”

Haytham is an obvious political project, he obviously want to retired as a politician in Syria! He is using the North American model to market himself as the right choice to the Syrians, unfortunately he is doing a terrible job.
He sounds too apologetic in every idea he writes and on top of that he get some support from the worst radicals on SC, and that in political world is not a very good sign of an assertive person who deserve to be responsible to lead.
I have no doubt that he might be a humble person in reality, but marketing himself as he is doing on SC is more annoying than inviting, sorry Haytham, but you need to hear my opinion.
I guess that you’ve been outside Syria for too long and you forget that most Muslims believes in the say: طالب الولايه لا يولى
Nevertheless, Good luck!

Thank you for your opinion. Really, I appreciated your frankness. However, I do not want to be a politician. I believe deep in mind that Syria needs change. Although I agree with you the alternative is not very mature. However, I think any alternative is better than the Assad rule. Believe me I do not to be a politician. Really, I appreciated your smooth criticism.

“you tell me don’t you guys want to take a worthy leap of faith for the best future for your kids? Or you just enjoy to become an old slave, filled with regret, waiting to die alone with misery!”

If it means living in an Iraqi style Syria, I’m sorry to say I would prefer the current Syria. Again, anyone, please convince me that this would not happen.

Note: I am not in Syria, it would be very easy for me to yell for resistance loud and clear from where I am. I’m just extremely worried for my family’s security. I would rather they live in security and peace under a dictator, than to live in a war zone.

“Actually we all should encourage each other to write our differences and talk about them instead of keeping them hidden, nobody needs to convince anybody in anything, just write down your ideas, your fears, your hopes and dreams let them out and let people decide their opinion, bringing our differences into a free place where only words (sometimes ‘cursing’) and free ideas can be exchange, is the best protest to all the evil we are seeing and reading about, it’s a sign of being civilized and mature, dialogue and only dialogue is the answer for any struggle.”

Your attempt at showing that the Christians are supportive of the revolution trying to save them later on when the civil war starts in full gear is not going to work they (( The Islamists)) will not have mercy on the Christian’s souls,

About Galion and Ziada, , why don’t they come out for one man one vote in Syria and equal rights for all even the presidency ,

Fundamentally, putting all their eggs on Betho’s basket is a retard action and reflects nothing but their immaturity in politics basics. In modern politics there’s nothing called “definite” Yes or No nor allies/enemies, there’s only mutual benefits based on certain goals within a timeframe. The current Christian approach of expressing “FULL” support to Betho while disparaging the revolution and shutting communication channels with opposition is a stark indicator of an aged leadership school.

Ideally, Christians leaders should distribute their roles to listen and seek guarantees & demands from both sides, following this tactic would maximise their benefit ROI and secure them with a proxy to jump the ship either side.

Frankly, I was hoping you would accept the gift of becoming a politician because the whole uprising, the young who died, have basically given their lives so that Syria can have politicians that are not from the Assad mafia and their gang without fearing death. It is one of their many gifts to us and there is nothing wrong in accepting that gift, in fact it would acknowledge and honor their sacrifices.

All opposition meetings agreed upon the separation between religion and state. Even the MB signed on the final declaration between religion and state.
Regarding their personal opinions Ghalioun is very critical of the intervention of religious leader in society. Radwan and his group religion for them is a social issue rather a a political one.
For me, my support for the revolution is because I believe Syria should be done with the Assad regime.
Also, I care to do not give to this revolution a sectarian tone or a sectarian stigma. I believe deeply that people on SC are not helping in that respect.

“If it means living in an Iraqi style Syria, I’m sorry to say I would prefer the current Syria. Again, anyone, please convince me that this would not happen.”

Frankly speaking, I find it quite disturbing that’s young intellectual Syrians are still in favour for the old school of “let me pass in peace”, while I understand this might be a legitimate short term goal but I strongly assert that you’re missing the strategic long term vision which would bring good and prosperity (maybe not for ya) but surely for the coming next generations.

AJ, I have to be honest with you it’s not my job to go and convince individuals from all over Syria, as a matter of fact it’s your Christian leaders’ task to go outside there and do some shopping for the best of their people rather sitting down and say (Come convince me while the sign on the door says “ U Not Welcome”)

Please don’t be bullied by the hard core mnhebaks pretending they seek dialogue while continue to watch the murder and killing of their fellow Syrians without blinking an eye as long as it is not affecting them. I would vote for you for any position you may be interested in.

“NK, I am sick and tired that you think that we do not want people to reach their potential no matter what their religion is”

Who are “we” in that sentence ? Baathists ? then let me emphasize, you do not want people to reach their potential no matter what their religion is. That is why Syria is known as the graveyard of talent.

Let me remind you that the vast majority of Syrians who reside in rural areas are -shockingly- Sunni, there was indeed social injustice and the Baath came along and made it even worse, the few extremely poor and uneducated peasants were put in charge and they naturally destroyed everything they touched, in the process they fought, jailed and sent into exile every capable Syrian and made billions stealing the wealth of the state.

As far as MB and the events in the 70s-80s go, well the mass murderer eternal leader did a very good job not investigating a single incident or crime committed in that period, and while the Baath militias were fighting actual MB terrorists, he made sure to get rid of all his enemies and potential competitors including many doctors, lawyers and university professors (most of them were Sunnis); then after the Hama genocide he blamed the MB for everything and closed that file. I lost a couple family members to Baathist death squads, both were famous doctors and both were assassinated inside their clinics, of course both have schools named after them because according to you eternal leader they were victims to the MB terrorists. Let me know when you conduct an independent investigation regarding these incidents and than we’ll have something to discuss.

For Iraqi refugees, I’m not sure what is the percentage of Christians among them but I assure you there are many more Muslims than Christians among them, also correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t many of the Iraqi Christians reside in the kurish area (you know that part of Iraq where Kurdish militias are trying to kick Arabs out so they can have their own state) ? not to mention the presence of foreign forces and the fact that both Syria and Iran (the resistance camp) worked very hard to train, arm and send in terrorists to incite sectarian tension for their own political reasons.

As for Egypt, it looks like you missed the article I posted yesterday, here it is again, Egyptian Christians are behind the revolution 100% it doesn’t seem like they’re worried about their future or safety. But please I’m sure you know better than the Egyptians themselves, it’s not like baathists ever cared about facts or evidence in the past, why start now right?

And finally the opposition/demonstrators have hair growing on their tongues while saying they want a CIVIL STATE WITH A MULTIPARTY SYSTEM AND COMPLETE RESPECT TO HUMAN RIGHTS. But then again it’s not about what the demonstrators say, it’s about what the Baathists don’t hear, and they don’t hear anything but their own voices!

I have to respectfully disagree. I think the Chechen reaction to the blessed relic was amazing and uplifting. It is reassuring to see that muslim emotional connection to their Prophet (Sallalhu Alaihi WaSalam) is still so strong.

Check out the response on the following forum. Many were moved to tears.

——————–
“That was an ugly, meaningless, pointless and extremely superficial case study of Christians in our backward and intelligent-wasteland region. (Usual of what we read in the American media)
Christians in the Middle East are endangered and the whole article is how the West and the Muslim world can USE them for the two world unhealthy relations, without mentioning what those people really want, what are their dreams and fears, what is their future or how to make them stay and help developing their native lands, Instead of being crushed between radicals (including dictatorship) and west aggression.
Arab Christians are already declining all over the crazy Arab world thanks to its political failures and its backward religious thinking (you have disgusting examples of those people here) yet what the Un-Civilized west world cares about is how to use those HUMAN!? I will call it “Ultra-Imperialism” where people’s religion and souls became a bargain for material gains.
I HATE it.”
——————–

Recently there is a use of the religion issue in our region for political gains by all sides, while (the Arab minority) are simply ‘reacting’ out of fear from everybody to what’s happening around them without getting any explanation or clear plan of what’s next for them, they fear from the regime reaction, they fear from the rebels, they fear from the west, comments such ‘Napoleon’ that Syrian Christians should emigrate because of the clash of civilizations ‘especially’ between Islam and Christianity will make Christian more fearful of the future and they will start packing an leave till the Levant get empty of it’s unique mosaic beauty. They did that to the Syrian Jews and they will do the same to every other Syrian minority.
As I wrote to Louai, I think that the Syrian Christians are fearful, their religion is more about surrender than fight, they make no population weight whatsoever and they have no political voice to unite them, I totally agree with you that they are damned if they do and dammed if they don’t, which leave them out in the cold and to be used as the scapegoat of all sides, what an ugly situation they stuck in, yet you read people blaming them for not being vocal…
I’m not sure if you read this article before, it’s a bit old but worth reading while the Syrian Christians are under the microscope:

Christian Arabs have to decide what they want to, they can do what Sarkozy wants and leave Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, or they can stand their ground and fight for what is rightfully theirs, the right to full citizenship in their home land with equal rights so they should decide where they want to stand, are they with the people who treat them as equals or the ones that want to enslave them under the theory of protecting them.

I knew that I was going into an uncharted territory. I am not expert on Ibn Tomimha. For this reason, I won’t discuss his religious views. However, all what I would like to see Syria without sectarian skirmishes. The rest I do not care about it too much.
Really, I am so sorry if incited any sensitivity whatever. For me, each one of you is more important than all religious scholars.

You are being ingenuine even when attempting to insult me.. Do not use a name Why-discuss once used when he did not know the origin or the spelling of Tara. You are copying other people and that does not say much about you. Ok?

Another striking and novel aspect of the conversation was news of sanctions being prepared against Syria.

“We [made] no decisions to [implement] sanctions against Syria until now. We only took some measures regarding the airspace to control arms traffic; that is all. Soon, I will be paying a visit to the Hatay camp and sanctions will begin after that,” he said but gave no further details.

Another statement he made that grabbed my attention was about his meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a significant part of which was devoted to the situation in Syria. “The only remaining factor that prolongs the [Bashar] al-Assad regime is Iran. The keys are in the hands of Tehran. It is the last remaining country to support [Syria.] They, too, have begun to change their attitude,” he said.

You did not touch on any thing sensitive. You just brought an important text; by accident or not.

We all need to know what really happened.

The text you brought has the utmost importance among the militant salafis. They rely on it to stand up against an unjust ruler. They have used this text before to justify many thing among them as I remember the assassination of al-Sadat. Read the influence of this specific text on the Jihad Islami (Egypt) thinkers in the early 1980’s and late 1970’s. The same text resonated with Sayyid Qutb.

We all need to know what really happened in history and to question what the formal educational system had stuffed in our brains for so long. We also need to learn how to question and look deep into texts that are used for political ends where violence was used.
مع التحية

If Iran is willing to give up on the government of Syria, does anybody think that it might be time for Syria to give up the friendship with Iran, as apparently most the problems that Syria is facing comes from it’s friendship with Tehran.

Absolutely not. New Syria should keep strategic alliance with Iran. Syria’s problems come from the presence of a dictatorship that muffles the Syrian people’s potentials. Syrians can learn much from Iran and from Turkey.

When you talk about Christian leaders, what do you mean? Do you mean religious leaders?. Indeed, those do not know how to play politics, because they are not used to practice politics. In the mind of Syrian Christians, there is complete separation between politics and religion. In the past, the Christian used to have a political class that is used to be the intermediary between the religious leaders and the state institutions. Hafez al-Assad destroyed this class. After the destruction of this class, the church leaders felt like orphans in politics. For this reason, I wrote in one of my discussion with Anwar al-Buni the following:ستاذ أنور: أنا لم أطلب من رجال الدين ألا يكون لديهم موقف سياسي أو ألا يعبروا عند الضرورة عن موقفهم السياسي، فأنا شخصياً لي علاقة حسنة جداً معهم وهم يحترمونني لأني أحترمهم. ما أطلبه هو من الشباب هو أن يتوققوا عن اعتبار رجال الدين مرجعيتهم في كل شئ. و أنا كما ذكرت في تعليق سابق ألوم حافظ الأسد في هذا لأنه قتل الطبقة السياسية وجعل بشكل من الأشكال رجال الدين مرجعية أساسية للناس بعد أن كان قد طوع هؤلاء الأخيرين. أستطيع توضيح فكرتي بكثير من الأمثلة وكيف حدث هذا تدريجياً منذ استلام حافظ الأسد الحكم.

Indeed, we need from the young Christians to start to practice politics again to fill the gap. We need them to start to practice politics while keeping the practice of the separation between Church and state.
Indeed, my next project is not to be a politician, but a political educator (a political trainer), not only for Christians, but fol all Syrians.

Mr. Norman….Good question…I wish that I know the level of secularism within the population of Iran…but, for sure there are way too many of them seculars over there. They need help for sure to come up to the surface because the Mulalhs have a vice grip as we see.

I was talking theoretically…which means if Iran is going to be a conservative religiously based state Syria should stay clear because of obvious reasons. If they manage to be secular then we be their friends. Syria should stand and be friends with modern states not archaic.

That was a very informative post. The implication is really harsh to the regime’s image of being an equal partner with Iran in the so-called resistance camp. If one is to take Erdoghan’s quote “The only remaining factor that prolongs the [Bashar] al-Assad regime is Iran. The keys are in the hands of Tehran. It is the last remaining country to support [Syria.] They, too, have begun to change their attitude,” at face value, it would seem that Bashar has mortgaged his regime’s survival to Iran’s whim, and for someone who claims that his regime stands for the safety and integrity of Syria to mortgage that safety to a foreign state is treasonous.

I think that Iran will eventually recognize that Bashar is a liability and not an asset. In fact, he pretended for years to have influence on Iranian decision, and the only influence he had was the release of a couple of American Citizens, who would have been released even without his interference. He was subservient to both sides of the US-Iran conflict.

The Iranians may not have reached that stage yet, but once they do, Bashar will be deservingly in a very tough position in terms of friends, because the bonus package with Iran includes Brazil and much of the populist led Latin American countries.

Ghufran @ 262
As a dual citizen, I take issue with your comment about the Austrian Authorities “tolerating” Syrians. It is more likely than not that the protesters hold Austrian citizenship, and the Austrian authorities is not doing them an exceptional favor or tolerating them.

Here what Muslims do to non Muslims in a country where USA, Jews or the west has nothing to do with that country, it is just because the other is different! then the terrorism is the way to punish the others.

Syria seems to be going on the road to division, multiple states religous and ethnic, the question is will the population accept the reality and their borders or continue to fight forever, I think that they will continue to fight and we will see significant destruction and death in Syria, I am so glad i made the decision in 1980 to leave and not come back, i saw where Syria was heading , had and have no relation to anybody in government son of an Electrician who had no money but with the help of the Syrian education system managed to send me and my brother to the universities,unfortunately , did not live for us to take care of him, but we are doing that for our mother as he always wanted.

Dear Mjabali
Once again, we agree more than disagree. I have some disagreements with the style and substance of 241, but could not but agree with much of 253 and fully with 257.

Yet, I would still urge a little caution in passing judgement on historical figures of the 7th century (Omar Ibn-Alkhattab) and 11th century (Ibn Taymyya)using our modern standards. Off course we should be able to measure their actions to our modern standard and demonstrate as forcefully as we can that their standards do not apply to us, although they may have been acceptable during their times. If we insist on judging them by our standard, the only difference between us and those freezing history to these bygone centuries would be the century to which history is frozen at.

I have no love or appreciation of Ibn Tyamyya, although i recon that he was much more complex than his blunt fatwas, I can easily see him acting in the manner described by Haytham as it would be consistent with his life-story. He spent many years in jail for being a stubborn theologian, and in reality he was jailed by request of his contemporary. But his role in defeating the third wave of mongol invasion is documented in several contemporaneous narratives.

I’m refereeing, firstly, to those leaders who give that immoral support to the regime against commandment of the Lord. Secondly, to those who are participating in organising the regime’s celebrations in Christian suburbs whether by $$ (Christian businessmen) or logistics (coordinators of the Christian scouts). Thirdly, and most importantly, to every Christian parent who refuses to educate their kids about what’s the reality behind what’s going on.

“Hafez al-Assad destroyed this class. After the destruction of this class, the church leaders felt like orphans in politics.”

I understand in Athadstan there’s no political life nor real politicians and that’s cross all sects and backgrounds not only Christians. Hafiz’ era is gone for good and Betho’s temple is collapsing so let’s stop blaming the dead and take some actions to rectify the damage.

“my next project is not to be a politician, but a political educator (a political trainer), not only for Christians, but fol all Syrians”

“Let me remind you that the vast majority of killings in the 20th century occurred by Jesus-abiding Christians. 5 millions Jews vanished by Christian Germans and more than 200.000 muslim Bosnians by Christian Serbs. More people in history died for the name of Jesus than any other religion. Did you forget?”

Tara, unfortunately, you have tried to use this argument with me previously. I believe you have never read any religious books, Islamic, Christian or Jewish. Here is why:

1. These terrible killings above were not committed in the name of Christianity. Hitler did not get a fatwa from the pope and he did not stand up say I am doing this because the Messiah son of God or Messiah Son of Mary ordered me to do it.

Same with The despicable act of the Bosnian Serbs, it was not done in the name of Christianity. If you knew a bit about Christianity, the size of a mustard seed will do, you may not have stated the above.

2. On the contrary, 9/11 killings and many killing by Muslims are done in the name of Allah who proclaimed that Islam is His true religion. unfortunately these killings are backed by Fatwas, Qur’anic verses and AHadith to justify such an act and those doing this act will be rewarded with many virgins (72 to be exact) and rivers of honey, milk and wine (wine on earth is not well made). BTW, if you disagreed with those who carried, these acts, they will deem you, Tara, a non-Muslim and you will have a price on your head.

If you cannot get your facts straight when it comes to religion, stick to being in Aboud’s cheer leader team :-).

It is great that we could discuss these issues. I think we have many notions from the past that we have to judge with our current day standards because of the direct effects of these elements on our current day lives. Hence comes the importance of al-Ahda al-Umaraiyah of Umar ibn al-Khattab and the decrees of Ibn Taymiyah.

As for Ibn Taymiyah and his role of fighting against the third mongol wave, I say there are flaws in this, because in my opinion they were all waves of invaders: Ibn Taymiyah and the third wave under Gazan. Ibn Taymiyah worked for a mongol, Mohammad Ibn Qalawuun, who fought other Muslim Mongols over Syria.

The fact that the third wave of the Mongols are Muslims is always hidden in our history books.

They were all invaders on the land of Syria.

Thanks for your open mind my fellow Syrian. Syria has good hope with people like you, although as you know we may disagree on some points here and there.

HANS Here what Muslims do to non Muslims
Wrong and racist. A more accurate description would be “here is what a fanatic Muslim suicide bomber did to innocent Christians

Indonesia’s population was nearly 235 millions in 2007, 12% of whom are Christians, if what happens is what Muslims do to non Muslims, there would have been no Christians left in Indonesia. Haters have no clue as to the illogical construction of their arguments and racist assertions. Pretty much like the hardcore menhebbak dumbos.

Twist the facts as much as you want. The facts will not change. More killings committed in the 20’th century and throughout history by Christians. The fact that there was no “fatwa” from a pope or equivalent makes no difference. Again let me remind you Darryl: Christians did the vast majority of killings in the 20 th century and before. This is a inn-disputable fact. Please stop being a hypocrite!

Haytham – ur facebook Zionist propaganda won’t work with us Syrian christians. Posting one of ur rubbish forged documents won’t sway public opinion which is 80% for the current government and against ur extremist buddies. Why dont u travel to wadi nasara and see for urself the love for bashar al assad and the hatred for ur violent terrorist revolution

Dear Mjabali
Off course it is great to discuss these things. It is our history, whether we like it or not. History reveals itself for what it is only after new ideas and norms allow us to detach ourselves from the emotional attachment to its characters.

That said, I agree that there is a contradiction of Ibn Taymyya fighting against one Mongol while working for another “Mamlook”. However, Ibn Taymyaa viewed both initially as Muslims. Qalawoon was not rampaging his own kingdom (he may have been taxing it to death to build the many mosques and to fight the crusaders), while Gazan forces were. It is also note worthy that the narratives of the days show that both Gazan and Qalawoon had Arab leaders among their troops.

Now, if one to recognize the historical conditions, The Mamlooks were the dominant military forces in the region. Many of them were Christian boys who were kidnapped from southern Europe or other areas, and assent to power became a legitimate means of being the ruler. The way it happened was much similar to the way emperors were declared in Rome during its decline three generation after it abandoned the republic and surrendered to the Dictator (Julius Caesar). The khalif was a figurehead and the Mamlooks ruled under the title Sultan but never assumed the title of Khalif. Whether we agree with it or not, it was the means of naming the actual ruler and of appointing the government. So for Ibn Taymyya, Qalawoon would have had more legitimacy than Gazan at least in the local scene of Egypt and the fertile crescent.

Again, if we are to judge by our own standards, we would consider all the Mamlook Sultans as usurpers who came to power through Military coup, but was there any other way of attaining power? then.

I do not know if you read my earlier post on Ibn Taymyya’s fatwas against the Alawites. I share your distaste of that fatwa and have written a short analysis of it. I’ll try to find it and post the link again.

I would love for Syria to be a republic like the US with all laws, constitution, and bill of rights, I just want that to be done peacefully with a consultation of an American institution that will count the people divide the country into districts and have elections for representatives from these districts where all parties will have the chance to compete, senate with 4 senators from each county,to protect small counties, and all major laws need 60% approval by the senate like in the US to pass, so minorities can be protected,

Is that too much to ask, It is baffling to me the slow movement of the Syrian government, except if they really believe that they are under attack.

Dear Majabali
Please note that I mean no disparaging of anyone by using the word Mamlook. I am simply using the historical name.

TARA and Darryl
The pope’s silence about the holocaust was as strong as any Fatwa if not stronger. The pope’s silence could not be disputed as he was the indisputable leader of the Church, while any other fatwa, including that of Shaikh Al-Azhar could be disputed by anyone of equal learning even with less status.

That still does not make Christians or Christianity Culprits in Hitlers crimes. It only make Hitler, his henchmen, and soldiers responsible for the crimes they committed, and others who cheered them responsible albeit to a lesser degree.

I need to understand why Syrian Christians are in favour for killing the protesters.

Can you cast some light and explain?

I know other minorities such as Druz are in total opposition for the killing but they can’t do much about it. Ok fair enough at least they don’t condone a criminal and at the same time they never condemned the revolution.

How long do you think the Arab leaders would accept that Erdogan presents himself as the voice of the Arabs? All Arab leaders have already shown their resentment by missing his speech at the UN that was focused on Arab issues.

Erdogan’s popularity may backlash soon and some Arab leaders may end up by helping Syria to bypass the sanctions Erdogan is threatening to impose especially that the OIC and the Arab League have openly opposed the US and the EU sanctions.

I am not sure Iran has a lot of sympathy for Erdogan either. They are insulted by his acceptance of the NATO defense system, his hijacking of the Palestinian cause and his attempt to transform the ‘arab spring’ into a turkish-modeled ‘sunni spring’.

Therefore the message to Turkey may soon be “This is none of your business, backoff”

The Syrian Christians are not supporting the killing as you are led to believe, they are doing it in their pants worry about chaos and what happened in Iraq to be transferred to Syria, they want change and reform but do not want an armed insurgency.

Indeed, Jad smooth “criticism” was a kind of compliment. For this reason, I appreciated it very much. Jad few weeks ago posted a comment regarding the late shrewd Canadian politician Jack Layton. For this reason, I understood that Jad is a political savvy. Smoothness and shrewdness are compliments in the political world. In politics, perception is as important as the reality.

Just to be clear, I am not saying Christianity is responsible for the Holocaust or killing The Muslim Bosnia. I bring up the fact that more killing in the 20th century took place at the hands of Christians for people to realize that you can not incriminate a religion or a brand of people based on atrocities committed by some.

Dear Zoo
Both Iran and Turkey are now vying to inherit the Palestinian cause from the fossil leaders of the Arab world. Like it was for Assad and others before him, the “Shirt of Uthman” that can be used to galvanize the masses.

I am of the view that a free Syria should have good relationships with democratic countries. Turkey is as close as possible to a democratic country in the region. Iran has its own brand of deformed democracy, the fallacy of which we witnessed not so long ago.

As for Iran to be insulted with Erdoghan accepting Nato defense system, it is very illogical. Turkey is an older member of the Nato than all of eastern European countries.

Nature abhors vacuum. So far, Arab leaders have done little to fill the vacuum in the region, be it economically, culturally, politically, or even militarily. It is now obvious that nations, whose leaders are interested in their Nation’s status (which applies to both Iran and Turkey) as opposed to being interested in enriching themselves, will be far more capable to fill the vacuum in the short term. Given the choice between the two, I would chose turkey for one major reason, and that is the higher likelihood of turkey returning to secular government than Iran, at least in the foreseeable future. That said, there is nothing that prevents smaller countries from being able to maintain their independent decision, and the key to that is their reliance on their free citizenry. Something we are trying to do in Syria.

Off course Arab leaders will have no interest in Erdoghan. In fact I suspect that they are secretly aiding the criminal regime of Syria. As I said before, if the Syrian regime falls, then every Arab regime is at risk. The Syrian regime is the most oppressive and criminal of them all.

My dear friend, when the revolution succeeds and Bashar is being tried for crimes against humanity, you will come to me to ask me for “protection”. Protection not because their is a real danger, but because of an imagined fear. See later friend.

“I need to understand why Syrian Christians are in favour for killing the protesters.”

Where do you people come with such outrageous generalizing comments from? Can’t you see how unfair and ugly and ridiculous to write something like that which include Haytham, Kilo, all those FB christian Syrian members that Haytham linked and all other Syrian Christians who are working with the revolution.
Seriously, grow up and see things more objectively than emotional without judging others and blame everybody but yourself of any wrong done to you.

I don’t speak of the Syrian Christians, I don’t even know if they have anybody to speak for them, what I was trying in my earlier comments and if you care to read them objectively to explain my take through my experience on the Syrian Christians mentality and how they think, THEY ARE POWERLESS and USELESS to expect them to do anything, they merley make 8% max if not 6% as someone mentioned before, but regardless of their low numbers some of them went out in the demonstrations similar to the Sunnis, that’s the max you can get from them so don’t expect anything more.

“Can you cast some light and explain?”

Actually, you answered your own self in your comment when you talked about the Druz community, just change the word Druz with Christians and you will understand that those two along Ismaelis and other Syrian minorities CAN’T DO A THING and what you are asking them to do is impossible under the circumstances in Syria and because of their core beliefs.

“I know other minorities such as ‘Druz, Christian, Ismaelis’ are in total opposition for the killing but they can’t do much about it. Ok fair enough at least ‘they’ don’t condone a criminal and at the same time ‘they’ never condemned the revolution.”

TRUE – Open up your wahhabi islamic extremist suicide bomber eyes and watch these pro assad rallies and funerals of army martyers from wadi nasara. Do u still have the nerve to say us syrian christians support ur islamic wahabbi revolution?You and your extremist buddies just cant realise the fact that without the support of the christians,shiites, alawites,kurds,druze,catholics and 70% of the sunnis in syria,russia,china,india,brazil,south africa, your islamic extremist revolution was doomed from the start. I wont bother replying to ur parasitic comments nomore. You need to face the facts on the ground 🙂

I am not sure of the accuracy of your statement that Iran does not have lots of sympathy for Erdogan. The same links you posted mentioned vital cooperation between Iran and Turkey in regard to intelligence sharing of the PKK’s activities. It seems there are more mutual interests between Turkey and Iran than Just pure sympathy.

Turkey has helped Iran through their banking system to circumvent the US sanctions and collect billions due by India. Turkey has been heavily criticized by the US about the support they give to Iran. This may explain partly why Turkey has accepted the NATO defense system to show the US that it is still their ally. Iran was not happy but probably understood it was the price to pay to get the US ignore the banking arrangements.
Yes, Iran is sharing intelligence about the PKK who is their common enemy.
Yet their competitive ideology is another matter. While none of them is Arab, Erdogan is promoting a moderate sunni-based model on the Arab world while Iran is promoting a moderate shia-based model.
Erdogan has been trying to take over Gaza and the Palestinian issues under his wing.
Iran has already Lebanon and Syria under its wing.
For now Erdogan is winning the popular Arab vote and Iran seems to loose it just because of their support of Syria. But who knows how long this will last. Already many Arabs are displeased by Erdogan’s heavy handed interference in Arab affairs.

So while there is an economical and anti-terrorist cooperation between the two countries, there is a fierce competition of influences.
My opinion is that, under the current regime in Iran, winning the ideological model influence war is far more important that expanding their economical ties.
Time will tell as many cards can change in the region.
There are elections in many countries in 2012…

“I need to understand why Syrian Christians are in favour for killing the protesters.”

True, rest assured no Christian is supporting killing of protesters. I have always inquired about this issue with relatives and friends, the response I always get that there is an armed element. Mate, Christians would not want to live under any system if it does not guarantee freedom, dignity and rule of the law. Many people from Wadi-Al-Nasara (I am from there) have been living in the west for more than a hundred years, living under a secular system. Almost every house has at least one family member somewhere in the west, if not entire families. All want democracy, probably not at any price though.

Many of us are extreme nationalist and we are afraid that Syria will descend into chaos and the only winners could be the nations enemies. No one know what the hell is going on anymore and no one knows who to believe. However, I believe Christians in Syria and Lebanon also, are alarmed of what has happened in Turkey, Iraq and Egypt over the years and they see Syria as the last fortress where Christians are respected, mind they earned this respect. They are afraid of the future, which is ironic as most Christians welcome change.

To the menhebak claiming that three Alawite girls were raped and their bodies were dumped in the garbage, you are obviously, and pathetically, trying to come up with a imaginary atrocity to deflect attention from the barbaric murder of Zianab Al Hosni.

What were the girls’ names? What were they studying? When were they murdered? Why didn’t your propaganda outlets make any mention of it?

This particular menhebak always comes out every once in a while with outrageous lies he has no means of proving.

AJ, the “silent majority” wil be silent no matter what. They are a “anything just to live another day” sort, who are into appeasement. Murder the whole country, but leave me in peace! They will accommodate themselves with whatever comes after Besho, just as they have accommodated themselves with this murderous junta.

As a force for change, they are useless. They will forever be the victims of circumstances, and will always lack the initiative to implement change and progress. They don’t believe in rocking the boat, even if said boat is taking on water.

“Do you want to become like them?”

Nietzsche once said;

“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.”

I am not talking about imprisoning tens of thousands of Alawites, and returning their bodies to their parents mutilated (or as the shabiha do, beat up their parents and arrest their sisters).

But knocking off the top echelon of this highly centralized regime will save many lives down the road. Evil must be fought. These menhebaks deny the holocaust (see 5 Functioning Braincells’s disgraceful post that only 100,000 Jews died during the holocaust from fighting each other, which no other menhebak dared condemn), they would definitely lie and deny the crimes of their shabiha drug smugglers.

So it is no surprise we have disgraceful and utterly reprehensible menhebaks claiming that there is “no proof” that the government killed and mutilated Zainab, and you have the other repulsive menhebak clamoring for the first’s imaginary experiences to be given prominent placing on this blog.

Disgusting people. Terrorism supporters should know that supporting and promoting terrorism has its price.

“Christians would not want to live under any system if it does not guarantee freedom, dignity and rule of the law.”

*facepalm* And yet you idiotically are willing to live under the current system, which guarantees you will never have freedom, dignity and the rule of law. See how you people blatantly contradict yourselves to cover your disgusting moral cowardice?

Those who are not willing to fight for freedom do not deserve it. You people want freedom handed to you on a platter. Freedom must be fought for, and you must fight to maintain it. But that would entail sacrifice. Naah, better to let everyone else do the hard work instead. Cowards in every meaning of the word.

Thank you to the poster who linked to the Syria News article about the list of banned imports. I didn’t know we imported barber chairs. But at least they left mobile phones off the list. Although I don’t know how the Baathists think people will make do without computers and laptops. And Besho is going to miss buying X-Box games.

So menhebaks, is everything still fine in your opinion in Syria? Nothing going on you say? When one of your fellow menhebaks is claiming that Alawite girls are getting raped in a city that’s been under military occupation since early May?

“TRUE – Open up your wahhabi islamic extremist suicide bomber eyes and watch these pro assad rallies and funerals of army martyers from wadi nasara”

Are you implying people from Wadi nassara are joining the Shabiha death squad? Or it’s just a matter of sympathizing with your criminal fellows!!

“Do u still have the nerve to say us syrian christians support ur islamic wahabbi revolution?You and your extremist buddies just cant realise the fact that without the”

You surely suffer some mental problem like all Menhebaks especially when you’re futile to answer, but let’s not get drafted out of our topic although I really can help ya with this matter . So why did you decide to join the Shabiha and killing kids & women instead? — tough man buddy

“You and your extremist buddies just cant realise the fact that without the support of the christians,shiites, alawites,kurds,druze,catholics and 70% of the sunnis in syria,russia,china,india,brazil,south africa, your islamic extremist revolution was doomed from the start”

You’re very good in making nonsense at all; can you rewrite your epic sentence in a comprehensive manner? But if you’re trying to say that “christians,shiites, alawites,kurds,druze,catholics and 70% of the sunnis in syria,russia,china,india,brazil,south Africa” are with Betho then mmmmmmmmmmm no bro you really need to see a shrink ASAP!!

Now take your med and try to relax a bit then tell me why do you support killing the Sunnis in Syria? Do you condemn Betho’s criminal actions?

Aboud, you have proven to me your version democracy is a sham. Democracy must have freedom of speech and all men were created equal. The messenger himself said he was a human being, you made him into a god. Frankly, you should muzzle yourself as you have been wrecked, your credibility is a distant past. Stick to scouring the internet for videos and spelling people posts for errors.

“Actually, you answered your own self in your comment when you talked about the Druz community, just change the word Druz with Christians and you will understand that those two along Ismaelis and other Syrian minorities CAN’T DO A THING and what you are asking them to do is impossible under the circumstances in Syria and because of their core beliefs.”

NO you did not answer my question. Christians did not hold their silence, did not stay on the fence they condoned the criminal Betho instead and celebrated the Sunni blood. At least they should have taken it as a matter of human rights like all Western countries!! Or maybe according to “their core beliefs” Sunnis are not eligible for human rights?

“The Syrian Christians are not supporting the killing as you are led to believe, they are doing it in their pants worry about chaos and what happened in Iraq to be transferred to Syria, they want change and reform but do not want an armed insurgency”

Do you condemn the killing by Betho the criminal?

If you do then tell me how do you expect a reform from a criminal who should be behind bars?

If you don’t then there’s no point of talking and I’m sticking to what I believe.

Just curious.
Any one can name the next dictators of Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen. I am hoping that the USA is happy with them otherwise we have to topple them and kill so many innocent people.
Let’s see Meledove or what ever his name is spelled, I am not in mood to google it, is nominating Putin to be the next present of Russia, mmmm is this a democracy?
I guess Putin is no different by much then the coming arabic dictators after the toppling of the current ones.

Or maybe the menhebaks will claim that these Alawite shiekhs were bought off by the MB? LOL!

“Democracy must have freedom of speech and all men were created equal”

“and I am on record saying I will not go to Syria until Syrians have freedom and dignity”

Actually, you’ll never go to Syria because your president spent more time playing X-Box than he did running the country, hence the mess he made of it. You’ll never go to Syria because it has nothing of the luxuries and privileges the “evil” west affords you, as it affords everyone of its citizens and residents. You’ll never go to Syria because economically it is a doghouse.

Frankly, you are a hypocrite. You support a murderous regime that will afford you none of the privileges you take for granted in the West. Don’t worry, I’ll be watching every lie you and yours make.

And be careful not to make a spelling mistake, I’ll never let you forget it. Can you “conquer” with that? Or is it “haroum” to you? Anyway, Ramadan Kareen, and I hope you got a grounding machine 🙂

@sheila 156
Thanks for agreeing with me that separation of mosque and state is the key to advancing Islam into the 21st and beyond, I get offended when an immigrants in Europe introduce themselves to me as ” French Muslims”
it says a lot about the citizenship of that person. By connecting his religion to the country he immigrated to is saying that being a french is not his citizenship, i don’t see that coming from a French Jew, or an Indian Hindu, or Sikh, it is only the Muslim who use that term.
I am sure that person in Algeria or Tunisia or in Syria doesn’t introduce hims/her elf as a Syrian or Tunisian Muslim. I wrote in one of my old post, I wish we don’t have religion on ID card in new Syria, that’s one of the way to say the individual is Syrians regardless of who your religion.
I hope will see Syria which all want to be, and we want to go back to, most of us who live in the west, don’t want to go back to live in Syria because we are used to level of freedom, respect of our lives and our kids lives which we don’t have back home, I still optimistic but I have to say previous experiences has not made me confident that it is going to be a better situation, especially the west has its own agenda and won’t do anything but to help Israel and probably bring more destruction to Syria. That doesn’t mean that I agree with the killing of innocents or oppression of people by any regime anywhere.

By the way, ya menhebak, the article you linked to is about Yemen. What’s the matter, you people can’t come up with revolution atrocities to justify your moral cowardice, you have to borrow from Yemen’s?

“Freedom of speech and equality comes after liberation. I do not understand why do you have to bring religion in your response to Aboud, or in your post.”

Dear NZ, how about we abrogate Qur’an verse 9:29 as start and I am sure you will have about 5-6 Million Christians as well as about 2 Million Alawites and I am sure I can get about half a million Druze on the street. This will be a start of Qur’anic verses to abrogate.

Then we honor verse 5:48 and make sure their is multiplicity of religions and beliefs and the state has no religion. Can you do that?

“How often do you speak about your faith where you live, now? Are there many kinds of democracy in the world, as they are diff”

We do not speak of religion in the west, that is one of the reasons you and I and many other Christians, Alawites, druze and non-observant Sunni Muslims and Atheists escaped to the west.

But when you have demonstrations calling Allah Akbar, it is a different story.

Leave Syrian Christians alone
Every one is trying to be smart about this issue.Christians in general are peace loving people.one of the corner stones of christanity is to love god and to love every other human being like you love yourself.So if you are a real christian you really cant hate any one(even Aboud).Superficial and manipulative thinkers blaming Hitler and other war crimes on christans and christianity knows nothing about it and are living in denial or suppression mechanism,trying to justify terrorist acts done by moslems who(wrongly or rightly)think that they are fullfilling a religious duty called JIHAD.ISLAM have been hijacked and destroyed by his own people.Every religion has good and bad stuff,lately many moslems have been making the worst out of islam.50 years ago you could have looked all over the moslem world and you wouldt be able to recruit a suicide bomber,now a days they are on sale for pennies.This extremist cancer in islam is being nourished by a lote of moslems who feel offended as soon as another person critsize it.Why would a 20 years old Saudi travel to Iraq and be willing to shatter his youg body killing Iraqis .
Going back to the implications of this subject on Syrians:Syria revolution unfortunately has been infected by the JIHAD cancer.People who are day dreaming will deny that ,but every syrian knows that this is islamic revolution with JIHAD element.i dont want to go into the details of that but we all know it is true.I wish that this revolution was coming out of universities,i wish that it was truly secular revolution.SR stock in Syria has been dropping a day by day for hundred reasons.SR didt from day one given minorities any security feelings.Even posters on this board are calling christians all kind of names and beneficiaries and so on,so the SR mistrust disease is present even in Electronic wahabi posters on this board.When christains :Assyrians,Aramaic,Arminians…were present in Syria,wahabi posters on this board were behind camels on SA.let us respect each other and start from today.A wahabi calling Syrians thousands of years befor him:persians ,makes you sick.
Sunnis have to realize that this is a corporation and they have most of the stock in it.If they act stupid like they have done in so many other countries and disrespect or cheat other co-owners,they have to file for bancrupcy.
Minorities in Syria:Christians,Alawi,Druz,Kurds..mostly with goverment.Main reason:SR stupidity and mismanagement.

Sho habibi? You are the ones claiming that %99.gazillion of Syrian Christians are unthinking regime sycophants. Afraid of the debate?

And I’d really like to see what your shabiha thugs would do to a prominent Christian leader who came out against your mafia. Would your shabiha “leave him alone”? Of course not, they would trash and loot his church, beat him up, and arrest his relatives.

Come on, let’s see more articles about Yemen to justify some people’s moral cowardice.

“But when you have demonstrations calling Allah Akbar, it is a different story.”

Then go into a demonstration and shout the slogans that appeal to you. I make no apologies for shouting Allahu Akbar, and only an ignorant would think that only ultra religious Jihadists invoke divine help.

“Then go into a demonstration and shout the slogans that appeal to you. I make no apologies for shouting Allahu Akbar, and only an ignorant would think that only ultra religious Jihadists invoke divine help.”

OK Aboud, you get a high and go into and heavenly frenzy when you shout Allahu Akbar. Can we abrogate verse 9:29?

#324 Did I say that I am the kind to live my life according to every verse in the Quran? Of course I’m not, and I have yet to hear anyone at any demonstration say “Al sha3eb yureed verse blah blah blah of the Quran”. Only a simpleton would think that the young people bravely working to overthrow the restrictions of Baathist rule, are doing so to replace it with a strict Islamic theocracy (the kind they have in Iran).

If there is any aspect of society you do not like, then work to change it. But what I find pathetic is people who whine that the revolution isn’t to their liking, and yet can’t be assed to work to influence the revolution in any way.

They want a democracy, custom made to their specifications, without exerting the toil and sacrifice that is the price to pay for a free society. Talk about an entitlement mentality.

What not to like about Ambassador Ford? A courageous man who sides with morality and puts himself in the harm’s way to express his support of the Syrian people. Or should I just dislike him because he is an American?

I heard on SC that Besho named a street in Homs after his mother in law. I suggest that in new Syria, we change the name of that street to Robert Ford.

Dear Tara,

No we should not dislike anyone b/c he/she is an Americam. I lived in the US for 25 years and I happen to Love America and Americans. It is my home equally so as Syria is my home. But I m very skeptical of the US government the same way that I m skeptical of the Syrian one. Ford’s actions have nothing to do with his or his government’s concerns about Syrian lives or rights. Their policy is motivated by Israel’s interests and is now capitalizing on the current situation in Syria to put a dent in the Iran-Syria-HA axis and will do what ever in their power to achieve that, even if it means killing many innocent Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Palestinians etc..The reason I brought up Iraq in my question to you, and you avoided answering it, is b/c Ambassador Ford was very instrumental in the implementation of that policy that we all know the results of it. So I again challenge you, friendly challenge, to answer the following:
1- How can someone who did not care for Iraqi lives and was instrumental in causing misery to so many be so caring for Syrians?
2- Had Mr. Ford been in Beirut in 2006, would he have dared to go and participate in one of the funerals of more than 1200 Lebanese civilians who vanished from Israeli bombing?
3- Would Mr. Ford dare to go and claim solidarity with any of the victims in Bahrain had he been the American Ambassador to Bahrain?

Mr. Ford might indeed be a decent guy, but Ambassadors of any government don’t operate out of decency, morality and what is good for humanity, but work diligently for what is in their best countries interests, even it is sometimes means walking all over people’s lives and destroying it in the process.

When thinking about the above, I urge you for a second to assume that I agree with you on most of your views regarding the situation in Syria and to adopt an answer that is not dictated by a reaction toward the perceived views of the person asking the questions.

And finally, if what you said regarding the name of a street in Homs is True, then I agree to change it, but not to Mr. Ford’s name. I don’t think that anything should be named after a president’s relatives.

The Islamic medicine trend is often associated with fundamentalists who charge that Western, chemically laced prescriptions aim to poison Muslims or defile them with insulin and other medicines made from pigs. Members of terrorist groups have been involved in Islamic medicine as healers and sellers, while some clinics are used as recruiting grounds for Islamist causes.

But the bulk of those seeking out Islamic clinics, hospitals and pharmacies, appear to be moderate Muslims, reflecting a rise in Islamic consciousness worldwide.

“Islamic medicine carries a cachet that, by taking it, you are reinforcing your faith — and the profits go to Muslims,” says Sidney Jones, an expert on Islam in Southeast Asia with the International Crisis Group.

Islamic medicine, toiletries and beauty products have become a big business with a customer base in Southeast Asia alone of roughly 250 million Muslims.

heheheh look who’s talking about management and leadership, go 3amo go talk to your incompetent Lord Betho the criminal and ask him how’s his management going with subduing the revolution? or better ask him how’s the economy management going especially with printing, printing and printing more money?

“50 years ago you could have looked all over the moslem world and you wouldt be able to recruit a suicide bomber,now a days they are on sale for pennies.”

I’m sure you could have found someone if you were looking in the right places such as Qurdaha the capital of Shabiha and terrorists for all times, and yeah i have to agree with ya it’s easy to hire an Alawi thug for only $4 flat-rate expect Friday. http://www.hireshabih.sy

“but every syrian knows that this is islamic revolution with JIHAD element.i dont want to go into the details of that but we all know it is true.I”

Finally i have to admit you’re getting there mate, the improvement is amazing with only 6 spelling mistakes

“that they are (fullfilling) a religious”
“and you (wouldt) be able to recruit”
“another person (critsize) it”.
“willing to shatter his youg body killing Iraqis” .
“they have to file for (bancrupcy).”
“.mostly with (goverment}.Main reason”

#330 Where do I start with your ridiculous post. If he was killed, he was killed for being a member of the oppressive Athadian occupation army, and for carrying out a program of genocide. I doubt whoever killed him knew he was a Christian (if he really was one).

“funded by the Turkish and Gulf countries.”

You know for that for sure do you? My oh my, that would be an act of war by the Gulf and Turkey. So how come your pathetic propaganda apparatus doesn’t dare criticize Saudi Arabia? Why hasn’t your feeble X-Box president kicked out the Turkish and Gulf ambassadors?

Persians, you’d think after six months their lies could have evolved beyond the “it’s a conthpiracy againtht Betho!”

True
I will keep the level of discussion up and I will ignore your insults(stupid..smelly
),I will just consider that I sign of weakness and lack of manners on your part which I hope you can improve.
Mismanagement by the government is not an excuse for mismanagent by the revolutionists,otherwise you replace crap by something crappier .You will never be able to find an Alawi suicide bomber..ever.
You are infested mentally by wahabi worms,you will not be able to get your clear human mentality,and even your (Syrianity)unless you can get rid of these worms.Wahabi worms makes your mind so intoxicated that you become hallucinating,and all you can your none-infested mind think about is :Shabiha,Qurdaha,Persian,Your god Betho…..That is all the toxins of Wahabi worms in your brain…I sympathize with you.
NB:you Wahabis are so proud of your English skills,that is a way for you to compensate for illness and to feel healthy and worms free..remember this is a chat and not PHD in English language Arts..if it helps you ,it is ok.

“”””””
Josh Landis, an American academic who writes an influential blog on Syria, says that Iran has helped Syria “immensely” with these efforts.

He says that when the protests began, the government’s response was to try to close the country to outside information, to control the message inside Syria, banning almost all international media. The Iranians, says Landis, counseled Syria to mount a more sophisticated international response.

“You’ve got to train up a cadre of young, hep Syrians who can get on all these social media, and that’s what they’ve tried to do,” he says.

When asked whether an attack on, say, Winfrey’s site is effective or simply a nuisance, Landis characterizes it as “all 10 thumbs.”

“But to have young voices that are sympathetic to the regime and begin countering this message demonizing Syria, if the Syrians don’t do it, if the regime doesn’t do it, they are going to lose even their own supporters,” he says, “because the message is just going to be so one-sided.”

The Electronic Army counters the protesters’ demand for change with a message of fear, Landis says.

” ‘This is a religious war, this is a sectarian war, they are going to kill the Christians.’ They try to scare a wider umbrella of people,” he says.

“””””

Reality

I cannot find any trace of such view from JL on SC .

Are these real words from JL ; when , to whom ?

NPR is notorious to have been involved in the fake Amina girl in Damascus scheme !!

No one can abrogate a Quranic verse, it just isn’t how things work. That being said there is nothing wrong with verse 9:29 and my guess is that you read a radical interpretation of the verse which took it way out of context.

Besho is still upset he’s not loved by his people. What is there to do except to send in tanks and bomb them?

Of course, when it come to an unelected arab despot, it’s tolerated like a garbage collection strike. Where are the outspoken and forceful leaders who never miss an opportunity to denegrate Israel? Oh well.

The hell with you, “Hans”, John Khouri, Norman and why don’t you Christians abrogate the deification of Jesus, something which he opposed and you’re the last person to talk about sectarianism when you Arab Christians are just as guilty of it as the “Mooslems”. Enforce your secularism on your people and hold gay pride parades and gay marriages in your churches. Tough luck that you lost the demographic battle and your worries won’t be built on the graves of tens of thousands of Syrian Sunnis so that the despicable Nusayri regime can stay in power and I guarantee you, if the shoe was on the other foot, you would be calling for war. If you don’t like the new Syria, you and your ilk can always enjoy your permanent exile in the West.

——————————————————————————–
Business is suffering, there are virtually no tourists here. In the city centre, there is no visible security presence, but you know the eyes are everywhere, in plainclothes intelligence agents.

In other uprisings across the Arab world, capturing the strategic centre of the capital was critical.

That hasn’t happened yet in Damascus. The president’s opponents say it’s just a matter of time. His supporters say he’s the only leader for Syria, a man who will stay in power, and it seems, at whatever the cost. Those in the middle, uncertain, are just worried about what the future will hold.

Earllier today, a large mutiny was reported within 7th Brigade in Kanaker, near Quneitra.
It was coordinated with the FSA and resulted in high number of casulaties amongst the Asad army forces.
The wounded are still being air lifted to Qunaitra Hospital.
Bodies are being burried in mass graves at a nearby hill.

Link to the first issue of the internet newspaper Soriatona.
The issue includes some details about Zeinab AlHusni’s tragedy and Homs 4th graders whose antiregime chants scared the prinicpal into requeating AlShabbeha intervention.

………………
“You cannot remove this regime except by force and bloodshed,” he said, speaking by telephone from the Syria-Turkey border. “But our losses will not be worse than we have right now, with the killings, the torture and the dumping of bodies.”

His goals are to carve out a slice of territory in northern Syria, secure international protection in the form of a no-fly zone, procure weapons from friendly countries and then launch a full-scale attack to topple the Assad government, echoing the trajectory of the Libyan revolution.
More ………………

A lady in Damascus went to visit someone in another quarter .
After her visit , she left the building , and later on , she was caught unwillingly in a protest.
To her surprise , a man was distributing banknotes and gave her 1000 SP .
When told of her story , an ” activist friendly ” friend said :

” In Homs , the man collecting garbage in my neighborhood gets 4000 SP to participate in the protests”

You want to talk about the dirty laundry of the Sunnis, but you don’t want to talk about the violence of your despicable regime or your forefathers from the ghulat Shi’ite sects like the Qaramaitah, Assassins, Fatimids, etc.

255. Norman said:

That would be another nail in the coffin of your regime.

272. Darryl said:

The hypocrite Darryl rears his again.

“1. These terrible killings above were not committed in the name of Christianity. Hitler did not get a fatwa from the pope and he did not stand up say I am doing this because the Messiah son of God or Messiah Son of Mary ordered me to do it.”

Forget about Hitler. Talk about the Crusaders who did get a “fatwa” from several popes, or the Conquistadors with the priests at their side who conquered North and South America or the many, other Western colonialists who conquered many of these lands in the name of Christianity and the Catholic church is reaping the benefits of these conquests to this day, as are many secular and atheist Westerners. Of course, there were other factors involved, like belief in Manifest destiny and the supremacy of the white race.

The Western imperialists have just
“Same with The despicable act of the Bosnian Serbs, it was not done in the name of Christianity. If you knew a bit about Christianity, the size of a mustard seed will do, you may not have stated the above.”

Are you kidding me? The Bosnian Muslims were portayed as “terrorists” and the Serbian Orthodox Church played a strong role in egging the Serbian militias and paramilitary groups in their attacks on Muslims.

Thank you for your response. Good analysis. What does promoting a Shiaa- or Sunni-based model mean exactly? I never understood that implication. Does it mean the ultimate goal of Iran is to spread Shiaa teaching in the ME or vice versa the goal of Turkey is to spread Sunnism wich is already the sect of the majority. I understand Iran is ruled by a theocracy but it is difficult for me to believe that they have a religious agenda of spreading their brand. Why would they care about ideology fight with Turkey if Turkey is advancing their interest?

Do we often over- read into people’s religion and their zeal to spread their belief?

Heeeey, SGID, have you been getting my cut of the demonstration-money?

LOL! Let’s calculate this for a moment. Suppose each demonstrator got 1000 liras. Every night, in cities and villages all over Syria, let’s give a very conservative estimate of 50,000 demonstrators (very, very conservative). So that’s 50 million Syrian liras spent each night on demonstrations…more so if Homsi garbage men need to be hired. Daaaaaaaamn, so much money changing hands and STILL Besho’s thugs can’t trace it?

LOL! Idiots, most people would be too ashamed to even repeat this pathetic lie.

Guys, how can a worm be a Wahabi? Does it have like a beard and short thobe and goes around carrying a stick? LOL! A Wahabi worm, the Persians come up with the strangest things to excuse the murdering butchery of their shabiha scum maggots.

Dear NK, there is nothing wrong with verse 9:29? Kill unbelievers or someone who disagrees with you, make them pay a penalty, make them feel small and humiliated if they do not agree with you, it is my way or death and degradation for you?

Has anyone ever reflected to think why people are treated like dirt in the middle east by government officials or the general public? Could it be that people are brought up to be so tough by being demanding, forceable, bullying, humiliating, belittle someone, argumentative, disregard for the feeling and opinion of others?

Is it possible that some of the terrible videos you show, the people dishing out the violence may have been influenced by these Qur’anic verses?

Lastly, how many bandages does one put on Qur’anic verses to say I am using wrong interpretation? The Qur’an boasts that it is a clear message from The Lord of the Universe, it does not need interpretations my dear NK.

Abu Umar, you are invited for a few beers, I will treat you to a few good bottles and we will have fun. Do you accept?”

Darryl, you are invited to a dish of kabsi, we’ll eat Bedouin-style with our hands. Do you accept?!

Enjoy your effete snobbery and your double-standards. I understand why you are looking at the situation through sectarian lens, so don’t blame me for doing the same thing. Many of the most fanatical Zionists are non-religious and secular like this clown:

“”””
Every night, in cities and villages all over Syria, let’s give a very conservative estimate of 50,000 demonstrators (very, very conservative). So that’s 50 million Syrian liras spent each night on demonstrations…more so if Homsi garbage men need to be hired
“”””
REALITY

There is difference between Christians and their leaders, their leaders are similar to Sunni leaders, some of them are corrupt ,like Bouti, and Hassoon,some are afraid of the regime wrath,so they say different thing from what they believe in,,I think the leadership of Christians they are not afraid of violence against them in the era post Assad, violence against Christians will not happen,they do not know what democracy and freedom will bring to the Middle East,Syria in the post Assad era,will be different, Syria will have good relations with Lebanon ,Iraq and Turkey,Iraq will have its own revolution,in the period that will follow USA troops withdrawal,most Christians are afraid of the future,which they do not know what it will bring about,certainly improve relations with Turkey will dilute their influence,,those who are saying there will be massacre of Christians in the post Assad era are exaggerating , democratic regime that believe in freedom will never resort to violence against the Christians,

Ibn Taymiyeh said “just ruler who does not inflict wrong upon his people will rule for long even if he is not Musslem, and the ruler who inflict wrong upon his people will not last,even if he was Musslem”

I agree with Aboud when he said those who do not fight for their freedom,they do not deserve freedom, those on SC who support the regime they agree to live in humiliation,they are the slaves of this evil regime.we will not forget.

“Christians, Alawites, druze and non-observant Sunni Muslims and Atheists escaped to the west.

But when you have demonstrations calling Allah Akbar, it is a different story.”

But if you are truly who you portray yourself to be, you will not alienate one group of people, “observant Sunni Muslims” from your equation, unless you are a racist, bigot, extremist or someone living in a bubble or on another planet.

“Allah Akbar: He is greater”, what makes you cringe?

Is it that you are an ideological person who like to twist facts. zionists occupier insist on painting the longest occupation into a religious one, Muslims vs. Jewish. In Syria sycophants are adopting the same idiotic line of the regime. These protesters are calling for their emancipation from a regime that is adamant on turning us, all, to stooges, cringing yes men and sycophants.

“Allah is Great”, every Arab, regardless of his belief system, reiterate frequently.

Religiosity, has nothing to do with this noble uprising, regime survival and their trumpets are keen on instilling fear in the hearts and minds of the shaky and turning it into a civil war, a clash between different belief systems, that survived for centuries in our beloved land.

Islamic culture will always be present in Arab countries and around the world. Rather than fighting this lovely civilization and its adherents, learn to understand it and live with it. It is a lost battle. Ignorant people, knowingly or unknowingly are helping in spreading the message, Islam.

Uh yeah, one million dollars is chump change to Harriri, but I’m amazed a menhebak would admit that the muKHARAbarat can’t trace a million dollars a day sloshing about Syria 🙂

So, are you accusing the Saudis of bankrolling the demonstrations? Why doesn’t your feeble X-Box president come out and say so? Why doesn’t he withdraw the ambassador from Riyadh? Heck, why is your media so cowed by the Saudis?

Just because you are used to shabiha scum who sell their services for 15,000 liras a week, doesn’t mean the rest of the world are like them. If people were in it for the money, they could earn more by signing up for the shabiha shit ranks, and it would mean less risks for them. Duh

“She is still not arrived in Damascus ,”

Dude, change your name to UnReality. She is in Damascus, I just saw her on the BBC broadcasting from there.

Violence against Christians will not happen!!!
Very wrong.it is already happening.SR is Islamic,jihadist one.Abu umer and kaled Tlass are perfect example of revenge,hateful gangs.Sunni extremist have no mercy,they vanished 5000 years old Assyrian community from Bagdad.Sunni terrorist continue to butcher christians in Iraq until now.Extremist syrian Sunnis are criminals,not trust worthy,trusting you that nothing will happen to christians
Is like a patient of yours smoking and eating ten eggs every day being assured by you that he will never have a heart attack.

First, the verse says fight and not murder or kill. To fight there must be someone fighting back. This verse was revealed before the battle of Tabuk where the Byzantine empire and the Arab tribes allied with it were conspiring to invade Arabia to put a stop to Islam, at the time those Arab Christian tribes were already paying Jizya to the Byzantine.

Second, the Jizya in Islam is not a penalty to punish and humiliate Christians or Jews. If the purpose was to humiliate and force people to convert then every non Muslim would be required to pay, however only those capable of fighting had to pay, women, children, the elderly, priests and poor people who could not afford to pay were all exempt, also exempt were those who join the Muslim army and fight alongside the Muslims in defending the state.

Not sure if you can read Arabic, but those links might help you understand this verse and put things into perspective

I am not certainly an expert but these are my thoughts on the subject.

Countries with strong ideologies aim to export their ideology that they perceive as the ‘best’. Arabs did it with Islam, Europe did it with Christianity, the Soviet Union did it with communism, the USA is doing it with capitalism.
Religious ideologies work the same way. Saudi Arabia tries to expand its Sunni Wahabism and Iran its Shia ideology.
Because Saudi Arabia has no rich history, its ideology is based on the strict application to the Islamic law as a way of life with a capitalistic approach in line with the USA: Malls and Mosques. Iran has a long history of civilization so its ideology is more complex and progressive in the interpretation of Islamic law and contrary to Saudi Arabia, it attributes an importance to art and self-analysis in the social life.
Somehow because of history, Sunnism is viewed as conservative, capitalist and business oriented while Shiism is revolutionary, socialist and intellectual.

Of course these ideologies once exported , are supposed to be adapted to the local customs, yet their “world view” remain the same.

Turkey has more resemblance with Iran for its history and has a good dose of secularism injected by Ataturk but I think Turkey is still a very conservative moslem country in the rural areas. In a way, Turkey is like a wilder Saudi Arabia: Malls, Mosques and…Whisky.

In summary, I think, all countries that consider themselves as powerful would give the first priority to export their ideology and way of life (whether religious or social). This is often done in subtle and insidious ways by using the weaknesses of the target country and many cover ups in order to develop a grassroot that may spread the ideology further. While important to maintain their power, economical relation has less priority for religious ideologies.
I think this subject can be discussed forever…

“Countries with strong ideologies aim to export their ideology that they perceive as the ‘best’. Arabs did it with Islam,”

Islam is not an ideology. Islam is a monotheistic faith revealed by the prophet Muhammad. Islam, is built on the messages of Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

Demonizing any of the three monotheistic faiths by Muslims, is a sin.

It is incumbent on Muslims not to judge anyway based on his belief system, ” you have your religion, we have ours…there is no compulsion in religion…”

A few bad apples here and there, will reflect bad on Muslims, NEVER, on the message, Islam, nor the messenger, Prophet Muhammad.

You or others, from within and from outside can try as hard to distort Islam, no one, will ever succeed.

Ataturk, succeeded for a short period of time to distort Turks history, culture, he failed. It is only when Turkey came to grips with who they are, not what one’s vision is for a people -secularists they have an identity based on reality, not an abstract idea.

Islam, is here to stay. Spanish, finally understood they cannot erase 500 years of their history, it is hard to erase such a presence.

Please let us not strain ourselves over her/his belief system, let us unite to regain our dignity and free Syria from tyranny and thugs. Only then we can be effective both nationally and internationally.

@359
Regarding Lyse Doucet
You should have noticed that I gave the time of her two pieces of news in my post #351 :
She made her “analysis” about Syria BEFORE arriving in Damascus city today morning.

I cannot deny the figures you are advancing about the supposed salaries of supposed unofficial security personnel (shabiba) ,
for sure you know better than me as you got your information when you applied for the job and you rejected their too little and too risky offer .

Wow! Pretty eloquent answer to a seemingly unanswerable question. Mosques, Malls and…Whisky is a remarkable phrase. When you mentioned self analysis, do you mean through arts and cinemas? Also, I am not sure if indeed Shiism as opposed to Sunnism is viewed as specifically intellectual. Is this considered a widespread view of the different sects of Islam or a personal observation?

I find their Ashuraa rituals to embody the hallmark of their culture: saddness and perhaps self-inflicted pain, at least in my own views. I would not describe it as particularly intellectual but hey, all religions have meaningless rituals….Would love to read an equally remarkable phrase to describe that particular part of their culture.

Sheila
You say that there is no problem that shari’a should be written in constitution as one of the basis of the legal system, but not as the sole basis, in reference to what i wrote about the current debate in Egypt (where it is already written in constitution as such). Indeed, shari’a is obviously already a part of the ‘sources of law’, just as Roman Law and the Bible (oddly) are part of the ‘sources of law’ in the west, and certainly in the Arab world as well. But do you really think the Ikhwan are going to accept to write “shari’a, the Bible, and Roman law”, which would actually reflect reality?

Daryll, the Qur’an is for everyone, not just for Muslims, it is a sin to humanity, just think about it, in the Qur’an Muslims have been asked to protect Christians, so it is our obligation to protect people like you as protected persons; remember the names of people like Umae ibn al Khattab, Khalid ibn al Walid, Saad ibn Abi Waqqas and Amr ibn Aas; if these people wanted they could exterminate the whole Christain population of Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine; Middle Eastern Christains are very weak as they have shown time and again getting their ass kicked by all in Lebanon, so you need the protection of Sunni Muslims.

Dear NZ, firstly, I read and write Arabic and I never read the Qur’an except in Arabic. The word Qatilu means kill, put to death, arabic is a rich language, Allah could have used a different word, perhaps Allah could have said play polo on those horses. Your apology reminds me of Sheikhs who try to say that when the Qur’an says to beat your wife, Allah meant to say hit her with a feather or your finger tips.

Lastly, Jizya and Jazaa are related, Jazaa mean to punish. When the Canadian taxation office sends you a letter about your taxes, they are polite they do not say we are punishing you for being Muslim.

Please, please Honorable Muslims stand up, you live in the west, you have learned some etiquette. Please stop being apologetic to the these outdated thoughts. It is time to think, reflect and be honest with yourselves.

“Darryl, you are invited to a dish of kabsi, we’ll eat Bedouin-style with our hands. Do you accept?!”

Yes Abu Umar I accept, I have heard of Kapsi but not sure what it is, I do hope you mean this. I have no problem with Beduouin style, I eat Chicken with my fingers and I enjoy lamb barbecue off the grill. Can I bring beer and wine or perhaps Araq will go well.

Believe it or not Abu Umar, I enjoy your posts. Deep down I think you are a very reasonable person ready to come out and enjoy life.

“Enjoy your effete snobbery and your double-standards. I understand why you are looking at the situation through sectarian lens, so don’t blame me for doing the same thing. Many of the most fanatical Zionists are non-religious and secular like this clown:”

Abu Umar, I do not have double standards nor I am a snobb. I just find you are a really fun person to “converse” with. I think you have style deep down.

I do not care whether you agree with me in the ideas or not. What I care about is the level of discussion and the decency of spirit.

I invite you to transcend in your spirit. I invite you to make difference in society not to make worse.

While you are spending your time in sectarian bickering, I am spending my time in engaging in real discussion and writing. I am sending papers to journals for publishing. I invite you to publish with me (even if you differ with me in opinion). However, if you remain in your sectarian bickering, will never able to publish.

Thanks for posting the link of that public opinion poll. It is an indicator.

As pointed out, the scope is small.

Also, I think the random cold calling method to be a more reliable indicator.

That there is dissatisfaction in Syria can not be dismissed. I’d like to see WPO or Globescan perform polls, in an effort at analyzing multiple polls.

As an example of such, it was the consistency of five polls with sound methodologies that offered persuasive evidence that Iran’s 2009 election result was legitimate. (All results mirrored the official result.)